Max Verstappen finally comments on father Jos blanking his Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez

Max Verstappen has finally commented on footage appearing to show his father pieing Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez.

Last month, Perez won his fifth career victory at the Saudi Arabia Grand Prix, pipping his colleague Verstappen to the chequered flag in Jeddah.

There were massive celebrations amongst Red Bull but Verstappen's old man didn't look all too happy that his son wasn't the victor.

Footage showed Jos Verstappen looking a little awkward right next to the rest of the team and failing to give Perez his rightful congratulations.

It led to a lot of criticism from fans, who felt Verstappen Sr should have shown better sportsmanship and came across as a sore loser.

However, a few weeks on from the events and Verstappen has now addressed the clip which did the rounds and defended his father's antics as "completely normal".

Image: Alamy

"Obviously, my father is my biggest fan," he told Motorsport.com.

"I don’t like to lose and neither does my father. That’s how we grew up, but they always show the wrong pictures of course.

"Look: Checo [Perez] gets out of the car and wants to celebrate with his mechanics, which is quite normal. But another father does not belong to that party, of course. Therefore my father did not get in there.

"I think something like that is completely normal, even if some people don’t see it that way. But that’s OK, so those people just don’t see it that way. At the end of the day, we have to focus on ourselves and not on what the Twitter community thinks."

Image: Alamy

A second video did show a high five from Jos to Perez but it was the Mexican who initiated the handshake after his big triumph.

And fans were led to believe there is tension between the two Red Bull drivers after their awkward interaction during the cool-down after the race.

Perez asked Verstappen “Did you get the fastest lap in the end?”, with the Dutchman replying, “On the last lap, yeah.”

That caused Perez to say, “Were you not told to keep the pace?” and Verstappen responded: “I asked what the fastest lap was, and I think it was a tenth faster than what you were doing.”

Verstappen picked up the win at the Australian Grand Prix, with Perez coming in fifth position.

Topics: Max Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton, Red Bull Racing

Josh Lawless

Josh is a sports journalist who specialises in football and wrestling. He has been published by Curzon Ashton FC, Late Tackle, Manchester City FC, The Mirror, Read Man City and Manchester Evening News. He provides coverage of professional wrestling and has interviewed some of the biggest names in the field - including the first UK interview with The Hardy Boyz after their return to WWE. He has never sported a pair of Lonsdale Slip-ons, contrary to reports.

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