‘I want to be champion’: Sergio Perez’s deleted tweet raises eyebrows after Saudi Arabia Grand Prix triumph

Red Bull driver Sergio Perez has been caught seemingly censoring his Formula 1 title aspirations as his rivalry with two-time world champion Max Verstappen reaches boiling point.

The 33-year-old, who secured pole position in Saturday’s qualifying session at Jeddah, won the Saudi Arabia Grand Prix on Monday morning AEDT, crossing the finish line ahead of Verstappen in second. It was the fifth victory of Perez’s F1 career.

Verstappen snared the fastest lap of the race, meaning Red Bull claimed the maximum number of points possible from the 50-lap race.

“Of course, I recovered to second which is good, and in general the whole feeling in the team, everyone is happy, but personally I’m not happy, because I’m not here to be second,” Verstappen said after the race.

“Especially when you are also working very hard also back at the factory to make sure you are arrive here in a good state, making sure everything is spot on, and then you have to do a recovery race – which I like, I mean I don’t mind doing it – but when you are fighting for a championship and it looks like it’s between two cars, we have to make sure the two cars are reliable.”

However, there were tense scenes in the cooldown room when Perez asked his Dutch teammate why he pushed for the bonus point on the last lap despite being told to maintain a certain pace.

“I did enjoy the race to be honest,” Perez said after the race.

“I enjoyed it a lot, especially at the end, just pushing each other with the lap times knowing that he went a tenth faster, tenth slower, tenth slower, and it was all pretty intense. Then we were told to maintain a certain pace, then I was told again to push then to maintain the pace – so it was just a bit all over the place.”

Later on Monday, Perez posted to Twitter: “It was tougher than I thought, but in the end I’m happy to get my fifth victory in F1. Very happy with the result of the team. We are going to keep pushing very hard, I want to be champion”.

However, the Mexican driver quickly deleted the post, uploading the same tweet without the line: “I want to be champion”.

Having won the recent Bahrain Grand Prix, Verstappen currently sits first on the drivers’ standings with 44 points, narrowly ahead of Perez with 43.

After two races, the Red Bull duo are comfortably ahead of their nearest rival — Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso on 30 points.

The F1 season resumes next month with the Australian Grand Prix on April 2.