Red Bull team boss Christian Horner admits he was “very surprised” that Ferrari avoided fitting the Medium tyre to Charles Leclerc’s car for the Mexico City Grand Prix restart.

Max Verstappen had immediately got ahead of polesitter Leclerc at the start, stretching out a 4.6s lead by the time he pitted for the Hard compound at the end of Lap 19.

Ferrari, however, extended Leclerc’s first stint until Lap 32, one lap before its attempt to prolong a one-stop strategy was negated by Kevin Magnussen’s high-speed shunt.

Horner has echoed Verstappen’s admission that Red Bull had been angling for a two-stop prior to the race being suspended on Lap 35 to repair the damaged barrier at Turn 9.

Asked if a two-stop strategy had been Red Bull’s pre-race arrangement, Horner said: “Yeah. So we went aggressive today. The compounds had stepped down a compound.

“A one-stop felt, you’re hanging on a bit, so we felt we’d attack the race, and Max was very keen to do an attacking strategy even if he conceded track position to be on the right tire. And that was the plan from Friday.”

Like Red Bull with Verstappen, Ferrari opted to leave Leclerc on the Hard for the restart amid concerns over tyre degradation.

However, the Monegasque driver struggled on the white-walled compound, eventually succumbing to Lewis Hamilton on Mediums on Lap 40 and trailing home a distant third.

After Leclerc had managed to run almost half the race on the Medium, Horner says he was certain Ferrari would revert back to the middle-range tyre to attack Verstappen.

“That red flag was at the worst possible time in the middle of a two-stop. It neutralizes the race, and of course we’ve only got a Hard set of tires,” Horner explains.

“We thought Leclerc after that long first stint, I was convinced they’d take a set of Mediums because it’s worth about five meters off the start line. I was very surprised they went with the Hard tyre. You saw the Medium on Hamilton, and he was OK in the end.”

Although Ferrari reassured Leclerc that Hamilton’s Medium tyre would drop away, the Briton extended the gap in the closing laps and set the fastest lap on his final tour.

Having stormed to pole position on Saturday, Leclerc concedes that Ferrari’s troubles on the harder compound exposed the continued inconsistency of its SF-23 car in race trim.

“I think it still confirms the weaknesses of our car, where it’s a very peaky car,” he addressed. “And whenever we get out of the optimal window of the car, we are losing too much time. And that’s exactly what happened on the Hard.

“At first, I thought I could do quite a good job once we stopped. But then there was a red flag, the tyres cooled down, we went back out and the feeling was just not the same and I couldn’t find the feeling again with the tyres.

“So it’s a bit of a shame because before that it was really good, especially on the Medium. But we’ll look into it, again, on the Hard to try and understand what went wrong there, in order to improve that in the future.

“But I think short term, there’s no big fixes. I think every time we are, as I said, a bit out of the optimal window, we lose too much time.”

Max Verstappen says it would’ve been “interesting” to see how his two-stop strategy would have unfolded without the mid-race stoppage in the Mexico Grand Prix.

Starting third, Verstappen executed an excellent launch to slice in between the Ferraris, positioning his car to the inside on the approach to Turn 1 to seize the lead.

Verstappen had extended his advantage over Charles Leclerc to 4.6s when Red Bull pitted him to discard his Medium tyres for a set of the Hard compound at the end of Lap 19.

Having saved two brand-new sets of Hards, the Dutchman reveals that securing first place at the start initially aided his prospects as he was always intending to stop twice.

“I think that start definitely made it a bit easier for me in the first stint as well,” he said. “Also, because I was going to do a two-stop, so that, of course, gave me those extra couple seconds that would look great on the plot anyway, if we would have made it happen.

“So, yeah, just the tyres around here, it’s always very hard to manage, but I think we had quite decent pace in them. And then of course, we opted to box a bit earlier. And yeah, I think also on the Hard tyre, we were quite competitive, and I closed a lot of that pit stop back down.”

Emerging in seventh, Verstappen had scythed through the cars ahead yet to pit, resuming in the lead once Leclerc, who had run a longer stint, finally pitted on Lap 32.

One lap later, however, Kevin Magnussen’s high-speed shunt into the barrier at Turn 9 prompted the Safety Car to intervene before being upgraded to a full red flag stoppage.

“I think it would have been quite interesting to the end, you know, to see how much faster I could have gone a new set of Hard tyres,” he added. “Yeah, I think the strategy was looking great.

“But then, of course, we had the red flag. So basically, everything that we did, we could throw in the bin and start over.”

Despite remaining on the Hard tyre he had fitted before the suspension, Verstappen nailed the second start of the race to comfortably retain the lead into Turn 1.

“It was all about having a good start and trying to keep the lead into Turn 1, which we did,” he continued. “And after that it was just pace management to the end to keep the tyres alive, looking after the car, the brakes, you know, everything.”

He added: “Well, for me, it was quite clear that we had to do the last stint on that Hard tyre. Luckily, it had only done one lap. So that helped.

“But of course in the start, normally, the Hard tyres is a bit more difficult to get off the line, but we actually had quite a decent start on that tyre as well.”

Although Lewis Hamilton on the Medium compound overhauled Leclerc, Verstappen progressively increased his superiority to take the chequered flag with a 13.8s margin.

The three-time champion’s fifth victory in Mexico City also marked his 16th win of the 2023 season, surpassing the record number that he managed to achieve last season.

“It’s been another incredible season. I mean, the car has been unbelievable to drive in most places,” he exclaimed. “So, you know, when you then, as a team, work really well together and you try not to make too many mistakes over the whole season, then you can achieve something like this.

“So of course, I’m very proud of the achievement, because I think after last year, when I won 15, I was like, ‘well, if I can ever try and replicate something like that, I will be very happy’ and now we are here with 16.

“So yeah, just very happy with everyone’s performance in the team, you know, for the whole year for basically not making a lot of mistakes.”

Red Bull team boss Christian Horner and Max Verstappen have defended Sergio Perez’s attempted move at Turn 1 on the first lap that sent him out of the Mexico City Grand Prix.

Starting third and fifth, both Red Bulls got away excellently from the grid enabling Verstappen to slice in between the Ferraris and Perez to utilise the slipstream ahead.

As Verstappen positioned his car to the inside to gain the high ground, Perez swung to the outside of polesitter Charles Leclerc to make it three abreast into the first turn.

But the Ferrari driver was caught in between the two Red Bulls, resulting in contact that sent Perez momentarily into the air and damage that brought his race to an end.

After Perez conceded that his approach was centred on gunning for victory, Horner believes that “you can’t blame” the Mexican for trying to seize the lead at his home event.

“Yeah, absolutely two contrasting emotions,” Horner said. “One absolutely gutted to see Checo go out on the first corner. He had probably his best start of the season, got the draft and the tow from the three cars ahead, and so arrived with massive overspeed.

“And you can’t blame him at his home race, going to try and take the lead of the grand prix. I think you have to call it a racing incident, because three into one doesn’t go. Charles couldn’t get out of it, he braked late.

“So yeah, frustrating for Checo and really disappointing for his fans to lose him at the first corner. And the guys did their best to get him back out. But there was just too much damage to the floor and the underbody of the car. Charles is in a bit of a Red Bull sandwich.”

Horner added: “It’s a tough moment for him. It’s in front of his home crowd, he’s very emotional. And yeah, just said to him, next race next week, you’re going for the lead in your home race, you wouldn’t be a racing driver if you weren’t going for it.”

Although Verstappen insists that Perez potentially could have afforded more room on the outside, the Dutchman has also sympathised with his team-mate’s situation.

“I understand [the move] because it’s his home Grand Prix,” he noted. “You want to be on the podium, I fully understand that he went around the outside and he tried.  

“Looking, of course, at the footage, I think he could have left a little bit more space but on the other hand if it would have worked, you look amazing. I think it’s just more that excitement of wanting to be on the podium and this time it didn’t work out, unfortunately.”

Verstappen admits that it was only until he saw the footage in the cooldown room post-race that he understood the chaos that had materialised to his left at the first turn.

“At the time, I didn’t really see a lot,” he professed. “At one point, I just saw that a car was a bit flying in the air, but then I saw the footage after the race and then you can comment on it.

“But while driving it’s a bit hard because I was mainly focusing on Charles, because I couldn’t see what was happening on the outside.”

Verstappen eventually survived a mid-race red flag restart to notch a record-breaking 16th win of 2023 by a comfortable 13.8s margin over Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton.

Horner is convinced that Perez would have accompanied his team-mate on the podium without the extensive damage that prevented Red Bull from returning him to the track.

“I think he would have been on the podium for sure today,” Horner relayed. “That was never in doubt. It’s a big loss for him today here with obviously a car that was capable of being on the podium.”

Charles Leclerc insists he “had nowhere to go” in the opening corner clash that sent Sergio Perez out of the Mexico City Grand Prix.

Starting from pole position, Leclerc endured a sluggish getaway from the line and was immediately swarmed by Max Verstappen, who cut in between the two Ferrari drivers.

Behind them, Perez had also made a good launch and utilised the slipstream to position his car to the left of Leclerc into Turn 1 in an attempt to sweep right around the outside.

However, Leclerc ended up getting pinched between the two Red Bulls, resulting in the Ferrari driver making contact with Perez’s RB19 and sending it momentarily into the air.

Although Perez was able to nurse his car back to the pits, Red Bull elected to retire the Mexican after inspecting the damage, bringing a premature end to his race.

Leclerc would eventually battle through to claim third but was booed heavily post-race by the hoards of Mexican fans present at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.

The Monegasque driver defended his involvement in the incident to the local fans, citing that he was unable to do anything to prevent the touch that sent Perez out.

“A lot of booing…guys,” he said. “I mean, honestly, I had nowhere to go. I was a bit in between the two Red Bulls and, unfortunately, I touched Checo, but I had nowhere to go. So, it’s life.

“It damaged my car. And unfortunately, it ended the race of Checo, but on our end, we maximised our race.

“Of course, I’m disappointed to end the race of Checo like that, but I really didn’t do it on purpose. I had nowhere to go.”

Despite having picked up minor wing damage, Leclerc had extended his opening stint to be running a comfortable second until the race was stopped on Lap 33.

Kevin Magnussen suffered a rear suspension failure that pitched his Haas car into a high-speed impact with the barrier at Turn 9, prompting the red flag to be displayed.

Leclerc, running the Hard tyre, was able to resist Lewis Hamilton on the restart but was powerless to defend from the Mercedes on Mediums, succumbing on Lap 40.

“We struggled a little bit with the Hard after the restart,” Leclerc conceded. “Lewis was really quick on the Medium and then they managed to have a really good degradation, so they were just better today and it’s life.”

Sergio Perez’s Mexico City Grand Prix came to an abrupt end after contact on the opening lap with Charles Leclerc at the first corner when he “risked it all for the win”.

From fifth on the grid, Perez found himself jostling for the lead of the race with team-mate Max Verstappen and polesitter Charles Leclerc on the approach to Turn 1.

Perez sought a way around the outside of the Ferrari but the move backfired as he attempted to maintain control of the race at the earliest available opportunity.

Leclerc found himself pinched in between both Red Bulls as the trio reached the braking zone three-abreast, resulting in inevitable contact that launched Perez into the air.

Perez was able to limp back to the pits, but the severity of the damage sustained to the sidepods, floor and rear suspension was such that time was called on his race.

Asked whether he could have afforded Leclerc more space in the race-ending move, the 33-year-old argued: “Definitely yes. But I was not expecting Charles to brake that late.

“I was already ahead of him and he was in the middle, so there’s a lot less room to manoeuvre.

“Once you’re committed to the braking zone at those speeds, it’s just too late. With these wide cars, three cars into Turn 1, it’s not going to end up well.

“But if you decide to take a risk, I decided to take it, and I paid the price.”

Asked whether he would make the same move again, the Red Bull driver simply stated: “Yes, I would.”

Perez had high hopes entering his home race and had aimed to deliver a memorable performance for the tens of thousands of compatriots in attendance.

Instead, he was left reeling one of the ‘saddest’ days in his entire motorsport career.

“I’ve had some really sad moments in my career, but certainly this is as a race, the saddest one, because of the end result,” he conceded. “But at the end of the day, this is just racing. I go home very sad, but I also go very proud of my time or myself.

“We gave it all. I knew that today, a podium was not enough for me, and I really wanted to go for the win. I saw the gap and I went for it.

“It’s a weekend where I risked it all to go for the win. The pace was there. But it just didn’t happen. This is just how racing is.

“I’ve been here long enough to understand that. You have days like this. What makes me feel proud is that I gave it all. And that’s it.”

During a red flag triggered by a sizeable accident for Haas driver Kevin Magnussen at half distance, it was noted that many fans in attendance appeared to leave the circuit early.

With expectations high for Perez’s return, the Mexican denied that he felt he had let those in the grandstands down: “I felt to be honest I would have let them down more if I didn’t go for it.

“If I’m honest. I saw the gap and I went for it. I decided to take a risk, I knew it was going to be very risky, and I ended up paying the price. Yeah. Risk, reward, it was pretty high risk to take, but it was worth taking it.”

Max Verstappen has led calls for FIA intervention to prevent incidents of impeding in the pitlane following qualifying for Formula 1’s Mexico City Grand Prix.

Verstappen, Fernando Alonso and George Russell all faced stewards’ investigations for potentially impeding competitors in the pitlane during Q1 on Saturday.

All three drivers were later cleared without punishment, allowing Verstappen to take up his third-place starting berth for today’s race.

However, the Dutchman has been left bemused by the logic behind the introduction of a minimum lap-time which he feels has contributed to the issue.

Verstappen faced an investigation for an almost identical incident in Singapore for which he received a reprimand for his actions. The stewards later backed the decision in Japan as the practice is not explicitly banned but called upon the FIA to consider introducing such a regulation.

After a trial in Monza, as of the Japanese Grand Prix, the FIA now enforces a maximum lap-time delta for all laps completed during qualifying which further complicates the issue.

“I think it’s all imperfect at the moment. So, we need to come up with something else, but it’s hard,” Verstappen said of the latest incident in Mexico.

“The thing I don’t understand is like everyone is trying to make a gap now in the pit lane, which is the only place where we can do so. I don’t really understand how you can be impeding someone.

“That’s basically what everyone has been doing, so I’m surprised. I don’t think I did anything weird or wrong. I think we have to be a little bit more lenient with that, knowing that it’s a safe environment.

“I mean, we’re driving really slow, it’s the only place where we can make a gap because we drive out of the box and, of course, we are in the beginning of the pitlane, we didn’t know what other people are doing.”

“It’s just that we need that gap, the six to eight seconds. That’s why now it’s moved to the pit lane instead of the track, which in most cases, of course, is a safer scenario but clearly it still brings some kind of problems as well.”

On grounds of safety, the FIA agreed with Verstappen’s complaints and admitted that the maximum lap-time delta was partly to blame for the pit-lane fiasco on Saturday.

Maximum lap-times are measured between the two safety car lines, the first of which is at the end of the pit exit.

McLaren Team Principal Andrea Stella also weighed in on the discussion calling for “immediate action” to be taken.

“I think immediate action needs to be taken. It’s not a good spectacle. It makes the operations very difficult,” Stella asserted.

“You send your car and you actually don’t know when your car is going to get on track.  It puts all drivers too much at the mercy of the other drivers. And this for me starts to be unfair.

“We need to create policy aspects and ruling aspects to control the situation, which I think is just inappropriate.”

Sergio Perez believes that a strategy call during qualifying for the Mexico City Grand Prix “really hurt” the Red Bull driver’s hopes of pole position on home soil.

Perez was 0.257s off the benchmark set by Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc as the Scuderia claimed a surprising front-row lock out at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.

Meanwhile, Red Bull team-mate Max Verstappen qualified third, 0.097s slower than Leclerc.

The Mexican will start his home race from fifth on the grid, but behind the AlphaTauri of Daniel Ricciardo, who will line up fourth.

While Perez said he was not necessarily shocked to see Ricciardo put on such a strong performance, he believes the outcome of Saturday’s qualifying session would have been vastly different if he had managed to avoid using an extra set of tyres in Q2.

Asked whether he was expecting AlphaTauri to split the two Red Bulls, Perez said: “Yes, and the Ferrari as well, but it is what it is.

“Our progression in Q3 wasn’t great, we ended up losing one set that potentially we didn’t need to, but, obviously, you only know that after qualifying.

“I think that really hurt us in the progression we had in Q3, when you are talking about one tenth and a half or two tenths, that would have changed our life completely, so this is the way it is.”

“Daniel did a tremendous lap,” the 33-year-old said when pressed on whether the Australian’s achievement added further pressure on his future with reigning champions Red Bull.

“I don’t think it’s just Daniel who wants my seat. Let’s say there is a lot of other drivers that want to be in that seat, and it’s great. If it’s what they deserve then [I’m] happy for them.  

Since the Singapore Grand Prix, Perez has recorded a string of poor race results, starkly contrasting with Verstappen’s indomitable form in 2023.

However, Perez regards a fourth-place finish in Austin last weekend as positive progress and is expecting to build on that result this weekend despite his qualifying troubles.

“Yes, we already made the progress in Austin, we are also making progress here, so I think we are on a good level with the car,” he noted.

“But today was very difficult. Every single set of tyres I had today performed differently, so it’s a track that is difficult to get the most out of it. 

“I don’t want to go too much into detail but certainly I’ll say that we got lost on a few weekends with the set-up and we took a reset and I think for us, it’s looking better.

“[We are] starting set-ups a lot closer and just diverging through the weekend on things that we want to achieve differently.”

Looking to improve on his previous best result of third at the Mexico City venue (2021, 2022), the Red Bull driver is expecting this afternoon’s race to prove a challenge.

“It’s going to be very tricky tomorrow but there is a long race ahead,” he added. “I will try to pull something special for tomorrow and see what happens.

“I will try [to win]. It’s a track that’s difficult to overtake but we will try to make progress early on.”

Max Verstappen says he was unable to usurp the Ferrari drivers with his final qualifying attempt at the Mexico City Grand Prix as he had “no tyres left” in the last sector.

The three-time World Champion had led all three practice sessions and fronted the times in Q1, only being displaced at the end of Q2 when others conducted second runs.

However, Red Bull and Verstappen were stumped in the opening exchanges of Q3 by Ferrari, who had appeared to have been lagging behind throughout the weekend.

Verstappen eventually came up 0.097s short of Charles Leclerc’s pole time, leaving him third for Sunday’s 71-lap encounter.

Asked how surprised he was by Ferrari’s pace, Verstappen said: “I mean, it’s always difficult to tell, you know? I’m not part of their team, so I don’t know what’s going on.

“But yeah, I personally just expected it to be a little bit better in evolution through qualifying from our side. And I think that’s what we were lacking a little bit.

“I think Q1 was okay, Q2 wasn’t too bad but then it just seemed to like, fall away from us, like the improvements were not big enough, coming into Q3.”

Verstappen acknowledged the difficulty in nailing the “perfect lap” at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, citing that overheating his rear tyres dented his hopes of pole.

“But this track is also extremely difficult in qualifying, to basically almost, let’s say, hit the perfect lap. Because it’s so low grip, if you tried to push a little bit more, you might overheat the tyres, or you have a little slide.

“And that’s, I think, what happened to me today, where I tried to find a little bit more time, but then the balance wasn’t exactly there,” he explained. “And then you’re sliding, you overheat your tyres, and then in the last sector, you have no tyres left. And that’s basically a bit I think what happened.

“Yeah, it’s just this track is very, very difficult to put a perfect lap together.”

With neither of the front two ahead improving on their final tours, Verstappen was on course to beat the Ferrari duo when he went fastest through the second sector.

But the Dutchman couldn’t carry that momentum through the final stage, winding up less than a tenth adrift after failing to set a personal best in the last phase of the lap.

“I still felt quite bad in the middle sector! I was sliding around quite a bit,” he added. “So again, yeah, I mean, I tried to get a bit of time back. My first sector wasn’t probably ideal. I mean, I improved a bit but not enough.

“But yeah, it’s just feeling, and then around here, when you slide a bit too much, like I said, it doesn’t come together. And yeah, when it’s so tight, you know one or two-tenths can be easily found or lost and I think that’s what happened in qualifying.”

However, Verstappen remains optimistic about overhauling the Ferraris to triumph for a fifth time in Mexico, which would also secure him a record-breaking 16th win of 2023.

Pressed on his confidence for the grand prix, Verstappen replied: “Good. I also have two Hard tyres. So, nobody else has them, really around me. So that’s also maybe an advantage for tomorrow. But yeah, again, I mean, a lot can happen into Turn 1 already.”

Indeed, his first opportunity to at least split the Ferraris will come on the long run down to Turn 1, which he utilised to slingshot from third to first against the Mercedes’ in 2021.

But the Red Bull ace has poured cold water on the chances of him replicating that start.

“I always learned that you can never repeat the same start from when I was little,” he addressed. “Of course, you can look at it but every year is very different.

“It depends on how good your actual start is, then the line to the first corner…  there’s a lot that comes into play. Track conditions as well, for example.

“So it is more just an instinct and once you do your start, you make your mind up of what you’re going to do.”

Lewis Hamilton has criticised one Red Bull employee for not being “supportive” of Sergio Perez, believing it has contributed to a “difficult environment” for him.

Perez has been winless since triumphing in two of the first four races, dropping a huge 226 points behind Red Bull team-mate Max Verstappen, who has notched 15 victories.

The Mexican’s alarming slump has evoked repeated speculation about his future beyond the end of 2023, despite Perez retaining a contract with Red Bull next year.

Hamilton suspects that Perez has been unable to escape his ongoing rut due to not receiving complete support from every individual within the Red Bull camp.

Although the Briton failed to list a name, Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko received an official warning from the FIA last month for attributing Perez’s form to his ethnicity.

“As a driver I understand the psychological and mental pressures weigh so heavily on you, it’s hard to explain and to put into words,” Hamilton told Fox Sports. 

“I think he has amazing support around him and I think he’s carried himself really well. 

“I don’t think his team has been massively supportive of him, I wouldn’t say team, because there’s a lot of people, but one particular spokesperson has not been great in helping psychologically. 

“If I heard Toto [Wolff, Mercedes team boss] talking negatively about me on the weekends, it would be quite tough. It’s a difficult environment for him, but I think he’s dealt with it to the best of his ability. 

“I was so excited for him at the beginning of the year because he was driving so well. At one point I think he was in the lead of the championship and I was like ‘ah shoot, we finally got the best of Checo’. 

“But it’s a really long year, a really long season. It’s the most demanding sport I think that there is.”

Hamilton has commended Perez’s determination and is optimistic that the support of his home crowd in Mexico this weekend will provide a timely boost.

“The best thing about Checo is that he keeps getting up and trying,” he continued. “One thing for sure is that Mexico is going to show up for him this weekend. When I am at Silverstone, it gives you an extra bit of time. So I have no doubt he’ll have that.” 

Prior to the United States Grand Prix, Hamilton had taken advantage of Perez only accruing five points in three rounds to close to within 30 points of the Red Bull driver.

Whilst he reduced that further by finishing second in Austin last Sunday, Hamilton was subsequently disqualified from the grand prix because of a technical infringement.

Despite Mercedes being in contention for the on-track victory at the Circuit of the Americas, Hamilton admits it’s “unlikely” he can beat Perez to the runners-up spot.

“I think it’s unlikely, but I’ll give it my best shot,” he said regarding the 39 points that separate him and Perez in the standings.

“At the end of the day it doesn’t make any difference. Second or third [in the Drivers’ standings], it’s not first. Getting the team second is more the goal. That matters more.

“I think we are on a good trajectory but there are only four races which means Checo has to have four more really bad races basically, which is unlikely.”

Red Bull has organised bodyguards to shadow Max Verstappen during the Mexican Grand Prix weekend amid security concerns in the country’s capital.

Claiming a record-equalling 15th win of the season, Verstappen was booed when he took to the top step of the podium in Austin before chants of “Checo” [nickname of Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez] could be heard around the Circuit of the Americas.

In response to the perceived hostility towards the three-time champion, Verstappen will be shadowed by two bodyguards in the Mexico City paddock.

Despite the extra measures taken by the team, Verstappen holds no concerns going into the race weekend.

“Yeah, I have a bit more security here, but there are always a few countries around the world where it’s very busy, also here in the paddock,” he said.

In 2022, overcrowding at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez led to security issues with several drivers harried and accosted when moving between the paddock and garages. The promoters of the event have made changes ahead of this weekend in an effort to minimise any risks for drivers.

“Last year, it was really, really busy to get from your hospitality to your garage. It just helps to make it all a bit smoother on-track, off-track, travelling from your hotel and stuff like that.

“[We will do it] whenever we think it’s just helping the general flow of the weekend.

“I feel very safe. [Wednesday] I had a whole marketing day, and it’s been honestly a great reception here like I always had. It’s good to be back.”

Promoters of the Mexican Grand Prix are leading a ‘Racepect’ campaign aimed at promoting tolerance and respect to all those involved in the race weekend in response to “a growing number of incidents that have ranged from spectators booing drivers to discriminatory comments”.

Home hero Perez has also joined calls for respect, asking Mexican fans to “support the whole Red Bull Racing Team, not just me.”

Picking up just two of Red Bull’s 17 grand prix victories in 2023, Perez will be hoping to put on a performance in front of the home fans as he is yet to shake pressure and questions concerning his future with the team.

Verstappen, who has spent the vast majority of the season unrivalled, denied claims of ‘made up’ tension between Perez and himself.

“Checo and I, we get on really well. For us, I don’t think there is any rivalry,” Verstappen contended.

“Of course as a driver on-track, you always like to be first or to be faster. I think we have a lot of respect for each other, and we appreciate each other’s performances. I think it’s a good thing that it maybe starts here now. It’s not only here.

“In general, I think the behaviour of the crowd in some places I think can be a bit better. For example in Austin maybe it was a bit [to do with me?] but in general, I think the behaviour of supporting your favourite driver is fine, but then I think you also have to respect the competition.

“But this is not only in our sport. It’s a general problem in a lot of sports that I think needs to be looked at, and needs to be improved.

“Luckily, I don’t spend a lot of time on social media because it’s quite a toxic place. People who don’t need to show their face or whatever, they can say whatever they want. And again, this is not only in our sport, it’s in a lot of different sports, the same problem, or in general.

“I think it needs to be much better regulated what can be said and done, and written to people in general.

“I stay neutral in everything – In winning, in losing, in these kind of scenarios, I think for me that definitely works the best.

“I’m there to win, I’m there to perform, and as long as I can look at myself that I did the best I could and I’m there standing with the trophy, then that’s it for me. That’s what’s most important for me at the end of the weekend.”