Perez: It certainly was good teamwork with Max

It seems Verstappen started making up for his snub of Perez back in Brazil by giving him a tow in Q3 in qualifying, which meant the Mexican finished second ahead of Charles Leclerc who was third only 0.040s behind.

"It is a great Team result for everyone back home and here in Abu Dhabi, we are in the best position to finish off the job and get that result tomorrow," Perez said in Red Bull's team report.

"It certainly was good teamwork with Max today, it was important to get both cars as high up as possible for the race," he added.

"My Q1 and Q2 were looking strong, and I was hoping for more, but then Q3 wasn’t ideal, especially our first run. That put us on the back foot a little and in the end, it wasn’t good enough for P1," he lamented.

As for his race on Sunday and his fight with Leclerc for runner up in the Formula 1 Drivers' Championship, the Mexican added: "We have a very long race ahead of us, so we need to finish the job off tomorrow and deliver a massive result for the Team.

"It will be important to get off the line well and get a strong start to get away from Charles. We are certainly confident going into tomorrow that our race pace is good and we can race harder.

"We are a lot happier with performance than we were in Brazil," Perez revealed. "It would be a huge year for us if we are able to get second place in the Drivers’ Championship and make history for the Team.

"We will work hard and hopefully we can succeed," the 32-year-old concluded.