Sergio Pérez was comfortably leading the Yeda race when the team decided that the Mexican driver had to be the first of the leading group to pit to avoid Charles Leclerc’s undercut.
However, shortly after his stop, the safety car came out on track following an accident by Nicholas Latifi and allowed his rivals to pit, reducing his loss of time.
Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen easily overtook him at the time, while in the case of the other Ferrari, Sergio Pérez reached the first corner at the same moment that Carlos Sainz came out of the pits.
The Mexican did not stop and placed himself in front of the Spanish driver without leaving any space in the pit exit lane, positioning himself in third position.
Sainz complained on the radio that he had been pushed and the stewards noted the incident, but in a very agile way, the team told Pérez to return the position at the restart of the race, since they had verified that Sainz was about ahead at the moment in which the cars of both drivers crossed the line of the Safety Car, thus avoiding a greater sanction.
“Obviously he was trying to block it,” Perez said when asked by Motorsport.com about the move he made towards Sainz ‘s car.
“Which is allowed, as under the regulations you cross the safety car line. So I felt everything I did was fair.”
“The team told me to return the position, so I did it as soon as the safety car left. They have more information, inside the car you don’t know exactly where you are, you don’t see the line of the Safety Car. So yes, in In that sense, I felt I was doing the right thing at all times,” added the Mexican driver.
Once trapped behind Carlos Sainz ‘s car, the Mexican driver recognized that his pace was severely impaired and that he couldn’t do much more, finishing the race in fourth place.
“In the end, behind Carlos, I think the car didn’t work as well as it did in the first part of the session. We also made some adjustments with the hard compound, which probably hurt us a bit.”
“Then at the end I was catching up with him but unfortunately there was a caution and then he pulled away again.”
“We have to keep pushing. I’m very happy for Max and the team after the disappointment we had last weekend [in Bahrain], it’s a really good result.”
“To be honest, I think we’re fine. So we just have to keep working and see what we can improve. And hopefully improve next weekend,” Checo Pérez concluded.
