Sergio Perez says he and Jenson Button respect each other more now

Sergio Perez says he and McLaren team-mate Jenson Button will respect each other more when they fight for position in the future, following their Bahrain Grand Prix clash

Both drivers were summoned to a meeting with team principal Martin Whitmarsh and sporting director Sam Michael after they made contact during an intense battle at Sakhir.

Having cleared the air over the situation, Perez has said lessons have been learned and he expects both men to behave differently should they find themselves in a similar tussle again.

"We know not to risk that much with your team-mate," said the Mexican. "We were too aggressive with each other, we lost time and I think that has to be a little bit different between us.

"We can't waste too much time - and especially at this stage of the season where the tyres are so critical, we wasted too much tyre. So we have to be more flexible in fighting.

"We are thankful we are in a team like McLaren where they let you fight as team-mates, so we have to respect each other a bit more."

Perez said that he welcomed the sit down talks with Button to go through the different views he and his team-mate had about their fight in Bahrain.

"We talked, Jenson and myself, to apologise to the team. We were quite aggressive and close to having an accident.

"The chat was mainly to clear the air, to say everything that was going on between us, and to clean the relationship.

"Now, we need to be together to come out of the position we are, where we are not quick enough at the moment. We have to keep working very closely, Jenson and myself.

"So the chat we had with Sam and Martin, it helped to keep the relationship strong and keep the team together to get us out of a difficult moment."