Sergio Perez avoided “the catastrophe” with Max Verstappen during a disastrous start
Sergio Perez was "lucky" not to hit his teammate Max Verstappen after a very optimistic start, during the Miami Grand Prix, according to the team principal, Christian Horner.
After making a brilliant start from fourth place on the grid, Sergio Perez found himself alongside the two Ferraris in front of him and attempted an ambitious move to take second place behind the poleman, Max Verstappen.
But the Mexican failed to slow down his car in time as he braked for Turn 1, skimming the rear of his teammate’s RB20 as they negotiated the tight right-hander. Perez eventually ran wide in the run-off area and rejoined the track in fifth place, behind not only the Ferrari duo of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, but also Oscar Piastri.
Christian Horner believes that Leclerc’s poor start opened up an opportunity for Perez, but Red Bull came close to an incident in the first lap with its two cars. “His start was optimistic. Charles didn’t have a good start in front, he had to lift for Charles, and then he had an opportunity in the first corner,” Horner explained. “He went for it, obviously went in deep, and was lucky not to hit Max at the first corner and not to hit the Ferrari coming back on track. So I was happy to see that most of the cars survived.”
A lack of performance for Perez
Verstappen revealed that he had seen Perez getting closer to him at turn 1, but a disaster was avoided. “I was very focused. I turned and saw him locking up his wheels,” he said. “I looked after the race, there was a scratch on my diffuser. So something must have hit it. But yes, it was very close. It could have ended in a disaster, of course, for the team as well. We are lucky.”
Not having the necessary speed, Perez could only settle for fifth place at the finish, which became fourth when Sainz was penalized after the race, for an incident with Piastri after the safety car restart.
« I got a good start, Charles really got off to a bad start, but as soon as I braked on the inside, there was no grip, like with Lewis [Hamilton] yesterday [in the Sprint], explains Perez. « There was no grip, and I ended up locking up. I almost hit Max so I had to release the brake and I lost a position to Oscar. It was quite unfortunate, but other than that, I think we struggled with the pace today. It’s something we need to work on to try to understand what the issue was. »
