Max Verstappen says it is not up to him to help team-mate Sergio Perez try to secure second place in the drivers’ championship this year. Perez is 20 points ahead of Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton in third place. Verstappen said: “It shouldn’t always be on me to get the points.”. Horner said after last weekend’s Mexico City Grand Prix that Perez “will have the full support of the team to achieve something we have never done before”. The question of whether Perez can hang on to second place in the championship has echoes of last season. Verstappen refused to publicly say why he had done so, but it emerged that he was still angry about his belief that Perez had deliberately crashed in Monaco qualifying earlier in the year, preventing the Dutchman from improving his time. Verstappen said on Thursday: “Last year it wasn’t really well spoken about before we got into the race weekend.

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