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Perez baffled by lap 1 penalty

Published on 23 Jun 2019 19:17
9
By: Fergal Walsh

Sergio Perez is at a loss to explain why he received a penalty despite 'following the rules' during lap 1 of the French Grand Prix.

Perez went off the road at Turn 3, as was forced to go around the bollard at the edge of the run-off in order to rejoin the track safely.

MORE: Racing Point has 'plenty more upgrades' to come

While Perez followed the procedure that was instructed to the drivers before the race, he still was penalised as he overtook a couple of cars in doing so.

"The rule is very clear," Perez said. "You have to go around the bollard. As long as you are around the bollard then you are complying with the rules.

"It's hard for me to comment on whether or not I gained an advantage. All I can say is that I stuck to the rules and if that's quicker then it's not my problem.

"I don't know what else I could have done differently."

Perez continued that it would have been a much better solution for race control to get in touch with him and tell him to hand the position back rather than enforce a time penalty.

The Mexican driver added that drivers are "totally aware" of the rules when they become involved in a situation like that.

Perez maintains that points could have been on the cards for Racing Point if it wasn't for the penalty.

"I think we had the pace to be in the points today. But once you have that, you're totally out of the race. No matter what you do, you're never going to get it back.

"It ruined our race. I have to review the move again but from my point of view I just followed the rules and did what I had to do."

Ram Samartha

Posts: 1,172

It was strange. Under regular race conditions it would have been the slower way, but the problem was with the traffic of lap 1. He knows he can't leave the track and gain an advantage so he should have looked and jumped in behind the guys he was behind instead of in front of them like he did. He ... [Read more]

2
Jun 24 2019 - 05:04

F1 News Sergio Perez Racing Point

Replies (9)

calle.itw

Posts: 8,527
I mean, it was a baffling penalty. It was basically the stewards saying "well, you did do what you were told, but since it worked better than we anticipated we will penalize you for us not nailing how penalizing the long road should be".
- + 1
- Jun 23 2019 - 19:30
- f1fan0101
  
  Posts: 1,804
  it was really weird. I don't get it. He couldn't do anything else, and followed the rules. stupid penalty
  + 1
  
  Jun 23 2019 - 19:32
- abhidbgt
  
  Posts: 283
  It was baffling. It definitely is the shortcoming of stewards for not defining the route carefully enough which a driver needs to take when he/she goes off track which would result in him/her losing more time than gaining it.
  + 1
  
  Jun 23 2019 - 19:57
- Ram Samartha
  
  Posts: 1,172
  It was strange. Under regular race conditions it would have been the slower way, but the problem was with the traffic of lap 1. He knows he can't leave the track and gain an advantage so he should have looked and jumped in behind the guys he was behind instead of in front of them like he did. He knows that but he did it anyway and bitched hoping to get the decision in his favor.
  + 2
  
  Jun 24 2019 - 05:04
- calle.itw
  
  Posts: 8,527
  I kinda lean towards him not being able to do it in a reasonable way. Since the cars were so tightly clustered, waiting for "his spot" would've left him in the dust, that's not reasonable to ask of him in this situation. He had already lost time due to the trip around the bollard, so as far as I'm concerned he had done all he was obliged to do. That he didn't lose more time than the cluster of cars on the track isn't really something he could've impacted.
  + 1
  
  Jun 24 2019 - 18:12
- Ram Samartha
  
  Posts: 1,172
  I agree he shouldn't have been penalized but if you didn't have the regulation at turns like that everyone would cut them for an advantage. Maybe they need to be a bit more forgiving on the first lap, but the fact remains that he left the track and gained a 2 place advantage.
  + 1
  
  Jun 25 2019 - 02:34
- calle.itw
  
  Posts: 8,527
  Absolutely, and he could've given those places back once the first lap had moved on a bit, but I still think the incident was more on the stewards than Perez. It just seems like they hadn't taken the starts at all into consideration when designing that litle side-trip around the bollard.
  + 1
  
  Jun 25 2019 - 08:10
f1ski

Posts: 726
this was utter bullshit. They should have made the logical ruling and and said no penalty . I wonder what they would have done had Le clerc or verstappen had put all four off track multiple times to close a gap then made clean passes without any infraction would they levy a penalty. F1 is getting like soccer Grosjean performing the first flop accusing Ricciardo of leaving the track and returning unsafely while goes off and does the same!!!
- + 1
- Jun 23 2019 - 22:50
Alonzo

Posts: 66
Lot's of things F1 needs to fix, this is an example of one of them, the stewards suck.... This one just doesn't make any sense...
- + 1
- Jun 24 2019 - 21:52