Sergio Perez Handed Grid Penalty for Spanish Grand Prix

Sergio Perez has been handed a 3-place grid penalty for the Spanish Grand Prix after driving back to the pits with “a significantly damaged car”

The Mexican driver had spun and crashed his car on lap 53 of the race, causing him to receive significant and irreparable rear wing damage as a result. In spite of the damage, Perez was able to bring the car back to the pits to retire from the race.

However, the stewards took issue with Perez driving back with the car being in such a compromised state, and therefore was reprimanded with a 3-place penalty for the Spanish Grand Prix, whilst Red Bull have also been given a $25,000 financial penalty.

The stewards explained their reasoning by stating “After making contact with the barriers in Turn 6, the driver continued on track for the remainder of the lap with a significantly damaged car and thereby lost several carbon fibre parts on the way back to the pits.

“The team confirmed in the hearing that the driver had been advised to bring the car back to the pits as they were trying to avoid a Safety Car situation. The Stewards determine that, as well as a financial penalty for the team, a sporting penalty is necessary due to the safety implications of the incident.”

Speaking on the incident, Perez himself said “I did a mistake going into Turn 6, I just touched the wet patch and once you do that it’s really game over, and unfortunately that’s what happened.

“Very tough weekend, but I think there is a long season ahead and we will be back to our form that we had earlier.”

Sergio Perez has been in a rough patch of form recently. Despite securing a new two year contract with Red Bull prior to the Canadian Grand Prix, he has failed to reach Q3 in each of the last three qualifying sessions, and has failed to finish either of the last two races.

Team Principal Christian Horner is hoping that in spite of recent results, that he can get back to his early season form, having said to Sky Sports F1 “We got away with it today, but we need Checo back up there where he was at the beginning of the year from Barcelona onwards.

“What we see with him time and time again, you think he’s on the ropes and then he bounces back. He’s a tough racer, he’s a tough character.

“It hurts him more than anybody else and he’ll be determined to come back and show everybody the form we know he’s capable of.”