Max Verstappen 's father has slammed Red Bull for "favouring" Sergio Perez on the way to his victory at the Monaco Grand Prix.
The Mexican took his third career race victory in the principality, making the most of an error which cost leader Charles Leclerc and undercutting the other Ferrari racer Carlos Sainz to move to the front. From there, victory was little more than a formality on a track where overtaking is notoriously difficult.
Verstappen finished third, as the defending champion also benefitted from Ferrari's error and moved past Leclerc while the Monegasque was still in the pit lane. Despite the team getting both drivers on the podium, sandwiching Sainz, Jos Verstappen was left "disappointed" that his son was not prioritised by the team.
In his column for the official Verstappen website , the 50-year-old wrote: "Red Bull achieved a good result, but at the same time exerted little influence to help Max to the front. That he finished third, he owes to Ferrari's mistake at that second stop of Charles Leclerc.
"The championship leader, Max, was not helped in that sense by the chosen strategy. It turned completely to Checo's favour. That was disappointing to me, and I would have liked it to be different for the championship leader. I would have liked them to go for Max, but of course I am not entirely objective. I think 10 points from Max have been thrown away here."
Despite leading the standings, Perez had been quicker than Verstappen throughout the weekend and had qualified ahead of the Dutchman on Saturday. It was therefore he who was better placed to attempt the undercut on the Ferraris ahead of him, which was successful with the help of Ferrari's pit lane gaffe.
Explaining the reason for his son's struggles for pace in Monaco, Verstappen Snr blamed the Red Bull car which he does not believe suits the defending world champion. "Max's third place was very disappointing," he admitted. "We all saw that it was a difficult weekend for him.
"It starts with the car, which simply doesn't have the characteristics for his driving style yet. Max has far too little grip at the front axle. And especially in Monaco, with all those short corners, you need a car that turns very quickly. That was just hard."
