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Sergio Perez and Sergey Sirotkin have both accepted the penalties that they received in the Singapore GP. The pair were involved in a scuffle that ended in disaster, when Perez moved to the left and making contact with Sirotkin after overtaking him. The Mexican received a drive-through penalty for the incident with the Williams driver.
Sirotkin was given a five-second time penalty for almost running Toro Rosso driver Brendon Hartley into the wall, as on heavily worn tyres and a damaged car due to the earlier incident with Perez, he could not make the corner.
Perez said: "It was very costly. It was hard racing, he was defending his position very hard, moving a lot under braking and locking up a lot under braking. Then as I was going through him I tried to close the door, but I think he was too close there.
"In the end, not ideal. I don’t think it would have changed the result but it’s a shame we didn’t score any points. I have to see the incident but I think I probably closed the door earlier than I should have. I have to double check, but I think it was fair, the penalty."
Sirotkin added: "[There] was quite a big damage to the front part of my car, the flaps and bargeboards were properly damaged for me. Also the aero parts were moving throughout the lap, from corner to corner. After the point of the race it was just a case of survival.
"In the contact with Brendon, I didn’t know it until after the race and I wasn’t really fighting. I was kind of protecting my position under braking with my car completely damaged. I lost the car under braking and at that point I was just trying not to hit the wall.
"I understood was Brendon on the outside and I think he was waiting if I ended up in the wall or not. If you look at my onboard I was very close to park it there. It’s fair I got the penalty for it because I blocked him, but it was not because I wanted to fight him."
Marina Bay Street Circuit - 16 September 2018
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Replies (3)
Login to replymichielhimself
Posts: 132
If Perez was thinking "I'll accept it because I'm getting away with it, it could have easily been far worse", then that would not surprise me at all.
F1_IS_Dead
Posts: 123
He must be very happy about this "penalty".
They need him to sell tickets in Mexico. They probably need him to increase TV ratings (by Mexicans) inside the US. This guy is "important". There also is this new team owner, they don't want to upset.
calle.itw
Posts: 8,527
I wasnt impressed by Perez this race, but for him to do this poorly is rare, so like AJPP said, I'll probably get over this. Unless he do the same the next few races. Still, this is why I dont think he'll ever get a seat at Merc' Ferrari or RB, no matter how skilled or how much money he has (and he has plenty of both).