“Did we ask him to back off and not fight? No, we didn’t. In truth, there
was a battle on in prospect, but at the end Checo’s tyres were completely
shot.
“We could see by the tyre wear he was likely to run out of rubber by the
end of the race, and he very nearly did. If you look at his tyres there is
nothing there. He flat-spotted at one point because his tyre temperatures
went off on the last set in chasing Jenson, and he is entitled to chase.
“It was tight, but obviously not quite as close a contest as we had in
Bahrain. Even Checo said at the end his tyres were finished. So the message
was not tactical, it was practical.”
Perez reinforced Whitmarsh’s comments when he wrote on Twitter: “Just
want to tell everyone, the radio message was all about to save the tyres. Never
a team order. Can’t wait for Monaco.”
(Edited by Ben Bloom)