The so called delayed reaction by gautam was firstly cuz he waited for his team to come to him atleast or speak to him abt it or do SOMETHING in his favour but he got nothing. Secondly, he didn't want to give ali the satisfaction that because of him gautam left the task. Imagine someone has insulted u so much, at that point the last thing u want to hold on to is ur self respect. He tried to hold on, he did for a while. But everybody has a breaking point.
The reason for him to leave the task was mainly because he wanted to prove a point that self respect is way more important than money. And esp after what ali said (true/ not true).