This is max, two months after Monaco and Baku saying "I get along very well with checo. We connected on and off the track, I didn't expect it to be this good to be honest".

https://youtu.be/eNNyd6L1Q-s?t=1163

The question wasn't even about if he got along with checo, it was about if he brought anything with his experience. And yet max went out of his way to talk good about checo.

This is also after Baku, where the journalist says the issue supposedly exploded..

This just points to me the Monaco thing is a misunderstanding and the incident is much more recent. Max isn't someone who would say "I didn't expect to get along so well with checo, honestly" if he didn't mean it. When he doesn't ask a driver he always says something like "we respect each other and we are both drivers and do what we do" he doesn't go out of his way to talk about what a good relationship they have.

I have cero doubts there were rumours of Perez doing it on purpose, and that possibly Marko inquired about it. But checo doing it on purpose, then for some reason admitting it, and then Marko and Christian telling this journalist for some reason, is a series of events that's too much of a stretch.

The incident must have happened more recently between Japan and now and the monaco thing could be a misunderstanding based on a rumor.