By Jorge Hernandez
Sep 15, 2024, 3:51 PM EDT
The Mexican pilot Sergio Perez had a Unfortunate day at the Azerbaijan Grand Prixsince he suffered a crash on the penultimate lap with Carlos Sainzjust when I was fighting for the podiumbut the incident forced both of them to abandon the race, so the Guadalajara native shared his impressions after what happened.
Right on lap 50, between turn 2 and 3, when Both drivers were fighting for third place, the Aztec opened up and began to gain position on the Spaniard, who closed the space and ended up causing a crash which sent the two into the containment barrier.
Both cars were destroyed, forcing both competitors to abandon the circuit.
“What the hell is he doing, what is he doing, is he stupid or what?“, was heard on Checo Pérez’s radio after the incident; for his part, Sainz asked surprised what had happened, that he did not understand what had occurred in the incident.
The race was won by Oscar Piastri of MacLaren, second place went to Charles Leclerc of Ferrari, and the podium was completed by George Russell of Mercedes and Max Verstappen, Sergio Pérez’s teammate at Red Bull Racing.
“Checo” Pérez’s reaction after the race
Shortly after, Now calmer, the pilot from Guadalajara described what had happened. and admitted that he ended up feeling sad, because he felt he could get on the podium.
“It was a disastrous weekend, because we should have finished second or third.; we had the pace to fight for victory. Carlos is the last person I wanted to have had this contact with. It has been a bad day for the World Championship, but there are still seven races left; and there is still time to improve,” said ‘Checo’, referring to the fact that Red Bull lost the lead in the Constructors’ World Championship with McLaren’s victory.
“It was a very unfortunate day; the last person I would have wanted to play with is Carlos and the outcome of our weekends has been a disaster for us,” he continued.
Perez described the moment of the collision with Sainz and the reason he believes it happened, in which Leclerc, Sainz’s teammate at Ferrari, came into the race.
“I think we came out of the second corner with plenty of space between the cars and When Charles (Leclerc) was going inside, Carlos (Sainz) tried to catch his slipstream. When he picked up speed, He moved very fast, touched my front wheel, and that was it for me.”he explained.
“It’s a shame for the team and for the championship, after the race we were completing; and after all the work we had done throughout the weekend, it’s something difficult for all of us to admit,” admitted ‘Checo’.
“I’m very sad for the team; The positive thing is that we have recovered our rhythm and the changes to the car seem to have put us back in the fight,” he added.
“We were fighting for the win and it looked like we were going to achieve a great result. We have to continue with this progression and we hope that in the next races we will be very strong again,” he concluded.
The next race of the Formula 1 season will be next weekend in Singapore, where two years ago ‘Checo’ won the Marina Bay night race.
Continue reading:
· Oscar Piastri wins Azerbaijan GP as McLaren snatches F1 lead from Red Bull
· Checo Pérez will start fourth in the Azerbaijan GP: Who won the pole position in Baku?
· Red Bull reveals its plan to get “Checo” Pérez and Max Verstappen back to their best
· “Checo” Pérez and his goal with Red Bull before retiring from F1