Sergio Perez snubs Max Verstappen as he names fastest Formula 1 driver over one lap

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Max Verstappen is currently on track to win the world championship with a race to spare. The Red Bull driver increased his lead over Lando Norris to 57 points at the US Grand Prix last weekend.

If he maintains that advantage, he will wrap up the title in Qatar rather than having to wait until Abu Dhabi. Losail will host a Sprint race, which means 34 points will be on offer that weekend.

Barring what would at this stage be an extraordinary comeback from Lando Norris, Verstappen will become the fifth driver in F1 history to win four straight titles. Only Juan Manuel Fangio, Michael Schumacher, Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton have achieved that feat.

He will tie Vettel and Alain Prost all-time, overtaking Ayrton Senna. He already ranks third all-time for victories for 61.

In light of that statistic, it’s a little surprising that he’s ‘only’ achieved 40 pole positions. For most F1 legends, there’s a rough equivalence between those two figures.

Hamilton, for instance, only has one more victory (105) than he does poles. It’s worth noting that Verstappen took his first 10 wins between 2016 and 2020, when Mercedes were F1’s fastest team.

Sergio Perez names Lewis Hamilton as the fastest single-lap F1 driver

During an interview with ESPN Mexico, Verstappen’s teammate Sergio Perez was asked to build his ultimate F1 driver. For the ‘fastest lap’, i.e. the quickest driver in qualifying trim, he chose Hamilton over Verstappen.

Predictably, the Dutchman did feature elsewhere, with Perez picking him for the aggression category. He nominated himself for tyre management, mentality and coming back from last place.

Senna was the only other driver to feature as Perez ranked him number one for overtaking. The opposite of Verstappen, Senna racked up significantly more poles (65) than wins (41).

Helmut Marko’s brutal two-word response after Sergio Perez laments Max Verstappen upgrade advantage

Perez has been Verstappen’s longest-serving teammate since he joined the F1 grid in 2015. The Mexico City Grand Prix will be their 86th race together, 28 more than he completed alongside Daniel Ricciardo.

One could argue, then, that he’s better placed than anybody else to discuss Verstappen’s strengths. He finished a record-breaking 290 points behind him in last year’s championship.

It’s inevitable that Red Bull have favoured their history-making driver. Verstappen got more upgrades than Perez at the US GP, which prompted the latter to lament his disadvantage in fast corners.

But Helmut Marko said there were only ‘marginal differences’ between the two cars. Journalist Edd Straw countered that it was a ‘big asterisk’ next to Perez’s disappointing performance.