Former F1 world champion Jenson Button says he is 'amazed' by the comments of Sergio Perez about his Red Bull team-mate Max Verstappen.
Verstappen, who has already been crowned this year's world champion, refused to allow Perez past in the closing stages of last weekend's Brazilian Grand Prix. Perez is chasing second place overall behind his team-mate but Verstappen refused to allow the Mexican to have his sixth place finish on the final lap.
Perez came home seventh resulting in Ferrari's Charles Leclerc drawing level with him for second place in the standings ahead of the final round in Abu Dhabi this weekend.
Verstappen was ordered to allow Perez past on the final lap but refused keeping hold of his fifth placed finish.
Clearly unimpressed Perez said: "This shows who (Verstappen) really is." Speaking on the Sky Sports show Any Driven Monday, Button who won the world championship with Brawn in 2009, said he was more 'amazed' with Perez publicly slamming his team-mate than the incident itself.
"I'm more amazed by Checo's (Perez) comment, I love it, 'shows who he really is'," said Button. "It's a tricky one because we just hear one side of it, we don't hear what his reasons are."
When asked why he hadn't let his team-mate past on the final lap, Verstappen referred to a previous incident but wasn't clear which. The Dutch driver said: "I told you already last summer, guys, don't ask that again to me. Okay? Are we clear about that? I gave my reasons, and I stand by it."
Button said the two-time world champion should have made his reason very clear but thinks it could refer to an incident in qualifying at the Monaco GP earlier this year when Perez crashed out resulting in the session being red flagged. At the time of the crash Perez had recorded a faster time than his team-mate and went on to win the grand prix the following day with Verstappen in third.
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"It doesn't come across well, and when you hear his comments saying 'no I'm not letting him past, I've got my reasons', if we don't hear the reasons we think Max is being selfish, he's not thinking about the team or his team-mate," added Button.
"Maybe that's his reason for not wanting to give the place up to Checo because it hurt his qualifying in Monaco and maybe he thought Checo found the wall easier than he should have."
Button says Verstappen missed an opportunity to increase his popularity by allowing Perez past. This came after the 25-year-old had crashed with rival Lewis Hamilton earlier in the race.
"Max could have come out of this so well, the world champion letting his team-mate past so he can fight for second in the championship," Button added.
"You've got to ask Red Bull, if they have discussed this beforehand as Max said then why are they asking him to do it in the race?
"It's a real shame because like I say it could have been a perfect end to the race. The mistake in the early part of the race with Lewis was an incident we didn't want to see, but to come out and say 'here you go Checo (Perez), here's a couple of points and now you're second in the championship, we're going to finish first and second (overall)', it's awesome. But that story is not the story we have."
