Jolyon Palmer believes Sergio Perez’s pit stop was planned to bluff Ferrari » FirstSportz

Red bulls Max Verstappen won a hard-fought battle for the 2022 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. The Dutchman started 4th on the grid behind the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc and Carlo Sainz. Meanwhile his teammate Sergio Perez finished the race in 4th place.

The Mexican started a race from pole position for the first time in his career. But after a fairly good start to the race, Red Bull ordered Perez to come in for an early pit stop just before the Virtual Safety Car was called to Williams Nicholas Latifi crashed

But Formula 1 pundit Jolyon Palmer believes Red Bull planned the early pit stop and late handover of position to Carlos Sainz to aid Max Verstappen’s pursuit of Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari.

Also read: Helmut Marco reveals Red Bull’s strategy ‘looked at Hamilton’

Sergio Perez once again plays a role in Max Verstappen’s win

Sergio Perez was incredibly unlucky with the timing of the pit stop as he had just pitted to cover a ‘Box to Undercut’ radio call Charles Leclerc and Ferraris. Perez also lost position to Carlos Sainz when he passed the safety car line behind the Spaniard but initially held position much to Sainz’s apparent frustration. Perez relinquished the position shortly after the restart.

Palmer wrote in his F1 column: “Red Bull held Perez in third place which meant he could act as a perfect rear gunner for Verstappen in the restart and ensure Sainz couldn’t push the Dutchman into second place just like he did a week earlier in the Grand Prix restart of Bahrain had done. That meant the front two were able to carve out a slight advantage over the Perez/Sainz duo and from there they stretched their legs and made it a duel for the lead.”