F1: Sergio praises teammate Max for ‘tremendous’ first half of season

SPA [Belgium]: After Max Verstappen's "tremendous" start to the 2023 season, Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez has acknowledged that "there's nothing to be taken away" from the Dutchman.

Verstappen, who is attempting to win his third consecutive world championship, has a 125-point advantage over Perez in the drivers' standings after winning 10 of the first 12 races, including the previous eight straight.

Verstappen's most recent victory in that illustrious streak occurred in Belgium over the weekend when he overcame a pre-race gearbox penalty to move up from sixth place.

Perez, meanwhile, put previous problems behind him to finish second and record his best finish since Miami seven races ago. “I mean, it’s a massive difference, that sort of race, you know. You are just getting through overheating tyres, managing tyres and so on, so that worked a lot better today," Perez was quoted as saying by Formula 1.

“Overall, I think it’s a great team result. I think once Max came through, with his pace on that second stint, it was all about bringing it home with a good result for the team. We were looking after the car at that point, making sure that we didn’t take too much out of it.

That was pretty much the whole race," he added. As for Verstappen’s performances from the Bahrain opener to Belgium on Sunday, Perez stated, "There’s nothing to be taken away from Max, certainly. He did a tremendous a race, and he’s done a tremendous season. But the gap looked bigger today, because we had to make sure we brought it home once the result was settled."

Despite not winning the Sprint race against Mercedes rival Lewis Hamilton, Perez said his own performance at Spa-Francorchamps gave him more confidence going into the summer vacation. “But certainly he’s done a tremendous job, he’s very talented, around his team they’re getting the maximum out of the weekends, weekend after weekend, which is really impressive," he added.

“Yeah, it’s good, a double podium. I think today we managed to recover some good points. I look forward massively for the second half of the season, [and] looking forward to a bit of a break," said the Red Bull driver.