Perez 'the legend' happy to pitch in for Max at 'critical point'

Sergio Perez pulled out the stops to fend off Lewis Hamilton at a critical point in Sunday's thrilling Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, and the Mexican was "extremely happy" to contribute to the triumph of his Red Bull teammate Max Verstappen.

Following a round of pit stops by the title contenders, Perez assumed the lead of the race for the better part of five laps before he was caught by Hamilton.

But Perez put in an extra effort to keep the Mercedes driver at bay for as long as possible while Verstappen reduced his deficit to his rival to just a few seconds.

Perez's superb defense not only allowed Verstappen to close in on Hamilton, it also crucially closed a pit window opportunity for the Mercedes driver.

After being waved through by his Red Bull wingman to resume his pursuit of Hamilton, a grateful Verstappen radioed in to say: "Checo is such a legend!"

"It was at a very critical point of the race, you know," said Perez. "We really need to go through to hold Lewis, basically he had the race under control.

"I think Max was 10 seconds or more behind, so that would have given him just enough room for all the windows, you know, with all the Virtuals and Safety Cars.

"I’m extremely happy that I could do something. I was on extremely old tyres and there was not much I could do but I managed to take a couple of seconds out of Lewis.

"I mean, I’m sure Lewis will understand. As a driver you don’t want to get involved in the championship, they’ve worked so hard for it in this moment.

"But it’s my team, I’ve done it for my team, and I’m sure the sport and everyone will understand it."

• Read also - Verstappen: 'It didn't look great, but I pushed to the end'

Red Bull team boss Christian Horner was also appreciative of his driver's strong defense out on the track.

"Checo did a wonderful job bringing Max back into play, being a brilliant teammate," he commented.

Red Bull eventually retired Perez's car with three laps to go, fearing an engine reliability issue and a mechanical breakdown out on the track that could have warranted another Safety Car that could have undermined Verstappen's final effort.

"I am pleased," added Perez. "I mean, today we had to retire. I think we would have come really close if I finished probably second with the way it was looking.

"We could have done the one-two today, so I mean we had to retire because the engine was so-so, so we could create another Safety Car, but I mean it’s a great result. It’s a great team result."

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter