On what was a tough weekend for Red Bull Racing, Sergio Perez was given a five-second post-race penalty for hitting Alex Albon in the closing laps of the Singapore Grand Prix.
As they battled for P10 with four laps to go – as well as rapidly gaining on Liam Lawson who was running in 8th – Perez tried a desperate lunge on the Thai into turn 13. The Mexican hit the sidepod of Albon and almost forced the Williams driver into the wall.
Albon could continue but lost valuable seconds and multiple positions to lose out on P10 because of Russell’s final lap crash.
Perez crossed the line in P8, over 10 seconds clear of Liam Lawson in the AlphaTauri. In spite of the light penalty he received for ruining Albon’s night, he held the position he finished in.
He was also only given one point on his licence as the stewards believed Lawson was a factor in Perez having a go on that lap.
“The stewards heard from the driver of Car 11 (Sergio Perez), the driver of Car 23
(Alexander Albon), team representatives and reviewed positioning/marshalling system data, video and in-car video evidence.
“At the approach to Turn 13 Car 23 was in front, with Car 40 in front of both of them and travelling slower. Car 23 attempted to take the normal racing line through Turn 13 and was not aware of the exact location of Car 11. Car 11 make a move down the
inside of Car 23 and in doing so collided with Car 23.
“The stewards considered that this was an “optimistic” late manoeuvre by the driver of
Car 11, that it could be defined as “diving in” and that there was nothing that the
driver of Car 23 could have done to avoid the collision. Accordingly it is determined that the driver of Car 11 was predominantly to blame.
“We note the presence of the slower Car 40 in front of Car 23 caused the driver of Car 11 to believe he could make the overtake and therefore in mitigation of penalty, we determined to allocate only one penalty point.”
Photo credit: Red Bull Content Pool
