Wolff puzzled by ‘odd’ Perez-Verstappen gap

ZANDVOORT, Netherlands — Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff has labelled the performance gap between championship leader Max Verstappen and his Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez “bizarre.”

Verstappen leads Perez by 125 points in the championship and was 1.3 seconds clear of the Mexican driver in qualifying for Sunday’s Dutch Grand Prix.

Verstappen will start from pole, with Perez finishing the session in seventh.

While Perez is not mathematically out of championship contention this year, Verstappen, who has won eight consecutive races dating back to the Miami Grand Prix in May, is on course to lift his third title with five races remaining.

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When Wolff was asked what he thought about the gap between the two drivers, the Mercedes boss said there was no clear explanation for why Perez, a six-time race winner, is so far behind Verstappen.

Asked what he made of the gap, Wolff said: “Odd, bizarre. Checo [Perez] is not an idiot.

“We have seen it over these years, Checo is a grand prix winner and multiple grand prix winner, and he was at Racing Point.

“So I cannot comprehend. I mean, we’ve seen that Max has destroyed every single teammate that was with him, whether it’s due to his ability to create a car around himself that is just very tricky to control but fast if you can, and that makes those gaps.

“But 1.3 seconds, I haven’t heard any obvious explanations. But yeah, odd.”

Speaking to media after qualifying at Zandvoort, Perez said it had been the wrong decision to attempt two consecutive push laps on a single set of tyres in the final part of qualifying, but did not point to an obvious issue with his car.

“The sun was out at that time but it was hard to know how much the track had dried out,” Perez said. “We probably took the wrong strategy with taking the double warmup lap, double push lap, it took too much out of the tyre.

“As always, you know the best strategy after the session. We had P7 and tomorrow the main target is to have a strong start and then go forwards from then.”

Source: www.espn.com