Max Verstappen says he would be open to partnering Daniel Ricciardo at Red Bull Racing next season as speculation over Sergio Pérez’s place at the team continues to simmer.

Pérez has come under increasing pressure since Max Verstappen zeroed in on his third world championship. With the Dutchman having accumulated enough points to secure the constructors title all on his own, focus has turned on Pérez to secure Red Bull Racing’s first one-two finish in the drivers championship.

But the Mexican has struggled to reboot himself after a long slog of poor form in the middle of the season. His performances in Japan and Qatar ranked among his worst of the season, and Lewis Hamilton has since closed to within 20 points of second on the title table.

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Fernando Alonso has promised retribution for those who spread rumours that he’s considering leaving Aston Martin in a bid for Sergio Pérez’s seat at Red Bull Racing.

The days between the Mexico City Grand Prix and the sport arriving in Brazil have been gripped by wild and highly speculative rumours about a shock driver market twist to come in the final weeks of the season.

The rumour mill was set off by respected Spanish journalist Albert Fabrega, who mysteriously tweeted on Sunday night: “I don’t want to believe the rumour that they have told me now in the paddock. No.”

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Formula 1’s all-Americas triple-header ends this weekend with the São Paulo Grand Prix at Interlagos in Brazil, one of the sport’s most storied venues.

While both championships are long wrapped up, history is still up for grabs this weekend.

But rather than history that might be etched onto the F1 honour rolls, this is the battle to retain a place in the grand prix story.

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Lewis Hamilton says whether or not he has a chance at snatching second in the drivers championship is up to the under-pressure Sergio Pérez after the Mexican’s first-lap crash slashed the margin between them to 20 points.

Pérez’s struggles this season have left him with less than half of champion teammate Max Verstappen’s points total, and he’s now vulnerable to attack from Hamilton behind, particularly as Mercedes grows in confidence with its latest series of updates.

Hamilton’s disqualification from the United States Grand Prix blew out the shrinking margin to 39 points, but Pérez’s first-lap crash at his home Mexico City Grand Prix allowed the Briton to close to within 20 points.

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Daniel Ricciardo was surprisingly plucky for a man who’d finished his previous race stone-cold last.

Just days before arriving in Mexico City, Ricciardo had trundled to 15th at the United States Grand Prix, his first race back from a broken hand ending anonymously a lap down from the leaders.

And yet here he was seemingly brimming with confidence for his second crack behind the wheel.

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Max Verstappen is accumulating Formula 1 records so fast that he’s starting to re-break some of his own.

Verstappen’s 16th win of the season eclipses the previous best of 15 set by — you guessed it — himself last season.

Of course you might argue that numbers like these are historically meaningless with so many races in modern F1.

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Sergio Perez says he isn’t concerned about the threat posed by Daniel Ricciardo being back on the grid despite the Australian’s intention to take his Red Bull Racing seat.

Ricciardo is Red Bull Racing’s reserve driver this season but has been loaned to the sister AlphaTauri team to replace the ousted Nyck de Vries for the rest of the year. The sudden switch was made after Ricciardo set a time quick enough to have been on the front row of the British Grand Prix during a Pirelli tire test at Silverstone last week.

The test came just days after Perez started the British race 16th, having been knocked out of Q1 for the third time this season. It was also the sixth time in 10 rounds he had failed to qualify inside the top 10 for a grand prix.

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Sergio Perez beat teammate Max Verstappen to victory at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in another dominant one-two result for Red Bull Racing.

Pole-getter Perez’s race was almost perfect but for his tardy launch off the line that handed an early lead to second-place starter Fernando Alonso — who didn’t need to be asked twice to take the straighter line through the first chicane and take first place.

But it became quickly obvious that the Aston Martin was no match for the Red Bull Racing car. Perez bided his time until lap four, when he blasted back into the lead with the help of a super-effective DRS, and never looked back, with his way being eased by a lap-17 safety car that gifted him an easy pit stop.

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Sergio Perez has taken a second straight Saudi Arabian Grand Prix pole position after teammate Max Verstappen exited qualifying in 15th with a driveshaft issue.

Verstappen was on his first flying lap of Q2 when his driveshaft suddenly let go, forcing him to limp back to pit lane, where his car couldn’t be repaired in time to rejoin the session. Red Bull had just changed the gearbox before FP3 earlier in the day.

The Dutchman won from as far back as 14th at last year’s Belgian Grand Prix. The last driver to win from 15th was Fernando Alonso at the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix.

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Red Bull’s Sergio Perez set a sizzling pace ahead of the Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso at the opening practice session of the season in Bahrain.

Perez deployed the soft tire to set a session-best time of 1m 32.758s, almost half a second faster than the rest of the field and more than 0.6s quicker than teammate Max Verstappen in third.

Alonso’s second-place time caused the most interest, though, thanks to Aston Martin’s impressive pre-season showing and forecasts among the leading drivers that the green team could be set to join the front-runners. The two-time champion was 0.438s slower than Perez after his soft-tire run and 0.179s quicker than Verstappen.

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The only way for Daniel Ricciardo to get back onto the Formula 1 grid in 2024 is to hope Sergio Perez falls on his sword, according to Sky Sports F1 commentator David Croft.

Ricciardo was ousted from McLaren last season and has sought refuge at old team Red Bull Racing as a third driver for 2023 while he decides whether he has the enthusiasm to continue in F1.

The eight-time race winner had options to race in the bottom half of the field this year but said he doesn’t want to stay in the sport just to make up the numbers.

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Sergio Perez led a Red Bull one-two in final practice at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in a close contest with Mercedes.

In a quiet session in unrepresentative daytime conditions Perez set the benchmark at 1m 24.982s on a set of soft tires to beat teammate Max Verstappen by 0.152s.

Lewis Hamilton was a close third for Mercedes at 0.24s off the pace. The Brit set 17 laps for the session, among the most of any driver, as he sought to verify overnight fixes targeted at an unbalanced W13 on Friday.

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Sergio Perez edged Charles Leclerc at the top of the time sheet in the crucial first practice session for the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.

Perez took top spot around 30 minutes into the session with an early switch to the soft tire, and his best time of 1m11.853s couldn’t be beaten before the end of the hour.

Leclerc came agonizingly close when Ferrari undertook its qualifying simulation laps near the end of the session, with just 0.004s splitting the Scuderia driver from taking control.

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Sergio Perez won the Singapore Grand Prix ahead of Charles Leclerc to delay Max Verstappen’s title coronation in an attritional wet-weather race that featured two safety cars, three virtual cautions and six retirements.

After waiting through an hour-long rain delay, Perez jumped poleman Leclerc off the line but had to absorb significant pressure for almost the entire race, which timed out after 59 of the 61 scheduled laps owing to the number of interruptions and the slow pace of the race in slippery conditions.

His mission was hampered by an engine drivability problem under braking and on power, but a lock-up by Leclerc broke the Monegasque’s charge and freed Perez to build some rhythm. In the final nine laps, he was able to grow his 1.5s advantage into 7.5s at the checkered flag.

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Sergio Perez was in a pole-getting mood on Saturday afternoon in Baku but was left to lament a fuel problem that left the Red Bull driver unable to compete with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.

Perez and Leclerc had traded quickest time throughout practice and qualifying in Azerbaijan, and the pole shootout was set to go down to the wire when Red Bull Racing realized it had under-fueled the Mexican’s car ahead of the final runs. It meant Perez had to be held in his garage for refueling, and by the time he rejoined the track, he had lost touch with the pack and had to set his lap without the benefit of the powerful slipstream down 1.4-mile straight.

Ultimately missing out to Leclerc by 0.282s, the Mexican was left to wonder what could have been partway through a particularly competitive weekend.

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Sergio Perez narrowly beat Charles Leclerc in Saturday’s final practice for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

The Mexican’s best time, a 1m43.170s, was only 0.07s quicker than Leclerc’s fastest lap. He was almost 0.14s up on the Monegasque in the first and third sector, the bulk coming along the straight time between Turn 16 and the finish line, but Leclerc halved the difference in the slower middle sector.

Max Verstappen was third and a further 0.2s adrift, though the Dutchman had to abort his first flying lap on soft tires near the end of the session due to yellow flags at Turn 3, flown for an errant Valtteri Bottas.

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Sergio Perez topped a blustery first practice hour at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix ahead of Charles Leclerc. Perez, who won in Baku last season, set a best lap of 1m45.476s to beat Leclerc by 0.127s.

The Red Bull Racing and Ferrari cars were generating lap time in dramatically different ways. Perez was fastest of all in the straightforward first sector, but Leclerc made is all back with a purple time in the second split, which comprises 11 of the track’s 20 turns.

The last sector, comprising the flat-out run from Turn 16 to the first corner, went Perez’s way by 0.2s, setting the classification in his favor.

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Sergio Perez won a chaotic Monaco Grand Prix in mixed-conditions after polesitter Charles Leclerc conceded the lead in a series of strategic bungles.

The race started 65 minutes late thanks to a burst of heavy rain during the start procedure, and race control got action underway with a rolling start behind the safety car to keep the field on the full wet tire.

Leclerc led Carlos Sainz, Perez, and Max Verstappen easily at the start, but the track was drying quickly, and the timing of the switch to intermediates was looming as the major flashpoint of the race.

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