Sergio Pérez got involved in an incident with George Russell on the first lap, tried to continue in the race, but ended up leaving the Austrian GP on Sunday (10)
After a great sprint race, Sergio Pérez lined up fifth for the main race in Austria on Sunday (10), but the touch with George Russell early on put any chance of an even better result to waste. In the dispute on the first lap of the race won by Charles Lerclerc, the Mexican ended up in the gravel, went to the pits and managed to come back to the race. However, the RB18 was badly damaged, and Pérez had to retire in the 25th turn.
At the end, the Red Bull driver said that he gave the Mercedes representative enough room to get around turn 4 and was very sorry for the abandonment. "It's a great shame for us what happened today. I clearly felt from the outside of the corner that we did everything we could to avoid an incident," he said.
"It was only the first lap, George just needed to control the car, but he couldn't. We touched when I was already clearly in front," Pérez added. Over the radio, still on the track, Russell defended himself, saying that he couldn't have done anything and that it was #11 who came at him.
Discussions aside, Pérez was also asked about the abandonment of Ferrari rival Carlos Sainz, but he avoided celebrating. "I'm very sorry about what happened to Carlos today, but it has nothing to do with us."
Finally, Checo again complained about the RB18's pace. "I don't think the car was up, so we'll have to do an analysis on that," he concluded.