Christian Horner reveals details of Perez and Verstappen debrief after Red Bull clash

Horner, Verstappen, Perez — Photo: © LAT Images

Austrian Grand Prix

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Horner reveals details of Perez and Verstappen debrief after Red Bull clash

The Red Bull chief revealed the details after the Austrian Grand Prix

Matthew Hobkinson Lead Editor

F1 Editor & Journalist

Monday 3 July 2023 20:57

Christian Horner has revealed that he believes Sergio Perez 'did not see' Max Verstappen when the pair nearly collided at the start of Saturday's sprint race.

It was all smiles at the end of the Austrian Grand Prix as Verstappen claimed victory for the seventh time this season, while Perez put a torrid qualifying session behind him to finish on the podium.

Before the race, the majority of the talk was surrounding a near-miss that the pair survived at the start of the rain-impacted 24-lap sprint race.

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Perez took the lead heading into the first corner, but a poor exit out of turn one allowed Verstappen back in as the team-mates came very close to making contact in the opening stages.

Both drivers took issue with the actions of their team-mate, with Verstappen taking to his team radio to say: "He pushed me off man what the f***?", Perez replied: "What's wrong with Max man?"

However, Horner has now revealed that any issues have been put to bed, with the team principal revealing that the Mexican was oblivious to Verstappen's whereabouts.

Horner: Perez didn't see Verstappen

Sergio Perez got the better of Max Verstappen at the start of the sprint race

"We sat down and we had a chat last night," he told Sky Sports. "Already you could see the drivers talked about after the race. The qualifying with Sergio on Friday was the frustrating part.

"You can see he had such great pace today [Sunday], and his recovery was fantastic. He got a great result out of it in the end.

“They have a very open and honest relationship. Again, we discussed it in the debrief and Checo I think genuinely didn’t see Max there.

"He had a wobble at the first turn and Checo said he didn’t see him. We believe that, and Max obviously believes that. As far as we’re concerned, it was obviously put to bed yesterday afternoon."