They may be turning down the power during practice to save the engines for qualifying and the race. That would force the drivers to drive closer to 100%.
Perez won that race for Max with his block of Lando. It looked like Lando lost around 2sec with his new tires when blocked. Oooo that race was exciting.
Too bad the final push didn't result in some actual battling.
Aston Martin looks rather lost...as does Mercedes to be honest.
Russel sacrificed one position for the desperate team to get fastest lap, gaining the team a single point, so a team player as Hamilton might have been placed at risk from under performing Perez.
Perez finished 55 seconds behind the other team car.
All the other top teams had their cars far far closer together.
He's dropped to third in the driver standings and likely will soon drop to fourth.
1 Max Verstappen NED RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT 161
2 Charles Leclerc MON FERRARI 113
3 Sergio Perez MEX RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT 107
4 Lando Norris GBR MCLAREN MERCEDES 101
5 Carlos Sainz ESP FERRARI 93
6 Oscar Piastri AUS MCLAREN MERCEDES 53