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Max Verstappen has backtracked on his stance against his teammate Sergio Perez and expressed willingness to support him in the last race of the season in Abu Dhabi.
The world champion ignored team orders to swap positions with Perez during the Brazilian GP on Sunday.
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Verstappen had an eventful race, as his early race incident with Lewis Hamilton had dropped him to the back of the field with a 5-second penalty making things worse.
The Dutchman made his way through the field and in the dying stages of the race, swapped positions with Sergio Perez to attack Fernando Alonso ahead of him.
As Verstappen was unable to overtake Alonso, he was given the order by the team to give the position back to Perez. As it turned out, Verstappen did not give the position back.
After the race, the Red Bull driver said that he had his reasons for not allowing Perez to pass him. However, Verstappen also added that he's ready to help his teammate secure P2 in the championship in Abu Dhabi. He said:
"I have my reasons for that. We just discussed that. I think it was good that we finally just sat together and talked about it and basically just move forward from here. If we go to Abu Dhabi, and he needs support, it is not the end of the world. It is all about who finishes ahead anyway. If he needs the help, I am there. But it is good that we first talked about it now and cleared everything that was there and why I didn't do it."
Verstappen finished sixth in the Brazilian GP.
Max Verstappen talks about Lewis Hamilton incident
Early in the race, Max Verstappen had a collision with Lewis Hamilton that saw the Dutchman lose his front wing and even get a 5-second penalty.
Speaking about the same, Verstappen said that he felt he gave the Mercedes driver enough room, but Hamilton did not do the same. He said:
"I went around the outside, and I immediately felt that he was not going to leave any space. So, I went for it. He didn't leave any pace, and I knew we were going to get together. It gave me five seconds and wouldn't have mattered anyway for my race because we were way too slow. I thought we could race quite well together, but the intention was not there today."
Max Verstappen finished in P5 after falling to the back of the grid early in the race.
