By Joiner Martinez
24 Aug 2024, 16:34 PM EDT
Mexican Sergio Checo Pérez exploded against British Lewis Hamilton and insulted him by calling him an “idiot” in qualifying for the Formula 1 Dutch Grand Prix.
Checo exploded after the Mercedes driver blocked him in Q1, causing the Mexican to lose a set of tires that he could not use in Q3.
Hamilton was on a slow lap, while Checo Pérez was on a fast lap, so the Red Bull driver had to brake and wear out his soft tyres, forcing him to change them.
“What the hell is this idiot doing?” the angry Mexican was heard saying on the radio to his team of engineers.
Lewis Hamilton was knocked out in Q2, while Checo overcame the incident to finish fifth in qualifying ahead of Sunday’s race at the Zandvoort Circuit.
🚨 BREAKING: 3-place grid penalty for Lewis Hamilton for this blocking of Checo Perez.
At least Perez was finally useful for Red Bull, but Hamilton was only P12. #DutchGP pic.twitter.com/91JksLYvSQ
—Maxx | F1newsletter.com (@F1_Newsletter) August 24, 2024
Checo Pérez will start fifth
Pérez regains confidence with Red Bull by qualifying in fifth position at the Dutch Grand Prix with a time of 1:10.416.
The Guadalajara native will start on the third row and in front of him will be the Papaya team driver, Oscar Piastri, who qualified in third place and becomes a direct rival in his aspirations to return to the podium.
“McLaren is solid now, but I think we can fight them tomorrow. We have understood what happened with the car. We understand the problems we had. Tomorrow we will see the improvements we were able to make and understand the car better,” said Checo Pérez.
Following the summer break, Checo Pérez said that the Milton Keynes team has encountered the problems that affected it and prevented it from fighting for the top spots, which caused it to fall from second to seventh place in the drivers’ championship.
“We have found a lot during the holidays, as a team it helped a lot and we confirmed what we thought and it was a surprise. We can say that at the end of the year, but in general it is positive, because from here we can focus on limitations and improvements,” said the Mexican.
Continue reading:
“Qualifying is important here”: Checo Pérez shows his confidence in Zandvoort
“There are many things to improve”: Checo Pérez foresees several adjustments from Red Bull
Checo Pérez will have a new race engineer at Red Bull