Perez 'regrets' Brazilian GP post-race comments on Verstappen

Sergio Perez says he regrets "a lot of things" he said after last weekend's Brazilian Grand Prix when he took aim at Red bull teammate Max Verstappen for refusing to comply with a team order.

Verstappen rejected an order from the Red Bull pitwall asking him to give his sixth position to Perez on the final lap of the race to boost the Mexican's chances of finishing runner-up in F1's 2022 Drivers' standings.

On the cool down lap, Verstappen told his team that he had his "reasons" for not complying with the team order, which are believed to relate to Perez's crash in qualifying in Monaco earlier this year which ruined the Dutchman's final flyer for pole.

Red Bull was apologetic towards Perez after the race, but the Mexican was clearly unimpressed with his teammate's attitude, quipping over the radio that his action showed "who he really is".

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Perez continued to vent his disappointment in the media sessions, stating that he had helped Verstappen on multiple occasions in the past and that he deserved more respect from the Dutchman.

Red Bull team boss Christian Horner called a crisis meeting immediately after the race and forced both drivers to come to terms with the situation.

On Thursday in Abu Dhabi, Red Bull released a statement in which it said that it accepted Verstappen's reasoning for his rejection of the team order in Brazil.

Perez then expressed his regrets over his post-race comments directed at his teammate, stating that emotions were in play at the time.

"Obviously F1, it's a very emotional sport," said Perez. "And there is no other sport where you can speak yourself live, and it's only in F1 that this happens.

"So there's a lot of emotions going on in a lot of things to say.

"I obviously regret a lot of things that I said that the after the race because yeah, I am back with Max in the relationship that we used to have, and we are both on the team, and everyone is ready to move forwards."

On Thursday, Verstappen said that there had been no discussions beforehand about a potential team order scenario, and Perez agreed that a lack of communication and clarity within the team had led to the confusion.

"I mean everyone was put in a very difficult situation there, within Max within the team, myself," he added.

"I think we could have handled the situation better. We are obviously going to learn from it and do things differently in the future.

"And that's the way you should be, every team around the paddock is learning.

"Luckily it was just the last 100 metres of the lap that I found out that he wasn't going to give me back the position. It obviously was a bad feeling.

"But I think I'm able to put all of this behind us. And yeah, my priority is to have a good environment to work in, and to be able to trust my teammate, to trust my team. And that's my priority."

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