Sergio Perez has taken the blame for the incident in the pit lane that saw him receive a penalty in the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix as he closes on a Formula 1 race ban.
The Mexican had started third but looked to have edged around the outside of Charles Leclerc at Turn 1 until the Ferrari driver nudged back ahead going into Turn 4.
However, Red Bull’s dominance in race trim continued in Jeddah as Perez swept past Leclerc on Lap 4 with the aid of DRS to follow team-mate Max Verstappen home.
“Yeah, it was quite a bit more chaotic [than Verstappen’s race],” Perez said. “I had a great start. Unfortunately, I couldn’t keep ahead of Charles because he kept it there and obviously I gave him the space into Turn 2 and it was his corner then in Turn 4. So that was a nice start, good start once again.
“And from then on, I was able to get through Charles, I think within two or three laps. And then it was looking good, the race.
“I was within three seconds from Max, and I think the degradation on that Medium stint was looking quite good.
“But unfortunately, then we were compromised with such an early Safety Car, and that meant that basically everyone just pitted.”
With degradation minimal on the Jeddah Corniche Circuit, Red Bull opted to take advantage of the intervention on Lap 7 to pit both drivers onto the Hard compound.
However, Perez exited his pit box and into the fast lane in front of Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin, with the stewards opting to punish him for the “unsafe” action.
Having reviewed footage, the stewards stated: “Car 11 [Perez] was released from a pit stop in an unsafe manner, car 14 [Alonso] had to take evasive action to avoid a collision.”
“What made the situation worse was the fact that car 11 left the pits when there was a red light shown to it (indicating that it should not go out of the pit box).”
Perez, who wound up 10 seconds clear of Leclerc and thus retained second place, admitted it had been his misjudgment and accepted the stewards’ assessment.
“When I was going out, it was actually my mistake, because I was told by the team to hold it back,” Perez explained.
“But in hindsight, I looked on the right and there was nobody there when I looked. But in hindsight, I think the penalty was correct and that pretty much compromised our race.”
The Red Bull racer has now accrued eight penalty points, leaving him four adrift of accumulating the 12 that compel a driver to serve an automatic one-race ban.
Perez is also in the troubled predicament that the first of his current allocation of points will not be removed until September, leaving him in a precarious position.
Asked how much he could see from the car in the pit lane, Perez replied: “You are able to have a bit of awareness of what’s going on around you, definitely.
“And when I looked at the mirror, there was no one. I saw that I didn’t have the proper release. But I didn’t see anyone.
“So sometimes the team can be a little bit slower than you in the car. But this time was the other way around. Yeah, my bad in that one, but still happily didn’t change a race.”
