Should Sainz and Perez have avoided penalties for Baku crash? · RaceFans

For 49 of its 51 laps, the Azerbaijan Grand Prix was a tense, enthralling affair that slowly built up to a boil as the race went on.

The two-way battle for the lead between Oscar Piastri and Charles Leclerc became a three-way fight with Sergio Perez putting the Ferrari driver under pressure.

Then, Carlos Sainz Jnr began to reel in the leading trio and eventually got within DRS range of Perez in third to add an extra dimension to the late battle.

Unfortunately, however, the race would end in tears for both Perez and Sainz as they clashed at the start of the penultimate lap, taking both drivers out of the race. The stewards investigated the incident but decided not to take any action. But were they right to, or should either driver have taken the blame?

How it happened

Entering the penultimate lap of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, lap 50, Perez attempted to pass Charles Leclerc into turn one for second place. Perez took the outside line as Leclerc defended, allowing Sainz to take a tighter line on the exit and pass the Red Bull.

Sainz then had a look to the outside of Leclerc at turn two, which compromised his exit onto the straight leading to turn three and allowed Perez to pull alongside him at the exit. As the two ran side-by-side together, with Perez’s front wing half way alongside the Ferrari when the two touched wheels, sending both Perez and Sainz into the wall on the left-hand side of the circuit.

The crash immediately put both cars out of the race and scattered debris across the straight, with Valtteri Bottas having to slow down and in avoidance and running over debris as a result. The Virtual Safety Car was eventually deployed and the race finished under VSC conditions at the end of the next lap.

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What they said

In the cars

FOM played clips of both drivers’ team radios on the world feed after the accident. Perez told race engineer Hugh Bird: “What the [censored by FOM]? Did you see what he did, man? What the [censored by FOM]? Does he crash or what? [Censored by FOM] idiot.”

Sainz was baffled by how he had ended up being out of the race. “What happened there?,” he asked. “What happened? I don’t get it.”

After the crash

Speaking after the race, Perez wondered if Sainz had drifted into him while trying to get a benefit from his team mate’s slipstream ahead.

“I felt that, exiting turn two, there was plenty of room between both cars, and within a metre or two we end up making contact,” Perez said.

“It’s very unfortunate. It all happened too quickly. I think Carlos was trying to follow the tow from Charles as he went to the inside and that made things really hard.”

Sainz remained at a loss for how the two had ended up colliding.

“When I exited turn two, Checo was on my left,” he explained. “We normally do a slight drift towards the left into that long straight, which I did like every other lap. For some reason, that I don’t understand, Checo and I collided. Which is unfortunate and obviously very disappointing.”

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The official verdict

Post-race, the stewards investigated both drivers and after speaking to the pair, decided no further action should be taken against either Perez or Sainz.

“Sainz passed Perez after turn one and was completely ahead at the apex of turn two,” the stewards described in their decision. “With a compromised exit by Sainz, Perez pulled to the inside of Sainz. Sainz reported that he was aware of Perez to his inside. Perez, being slightly behind, was in a better position to see the relative location of the cars. But as the two cars approached the wall on the right at the exit of turn two, they were about [one metre] apart.

“From this point and throughout the incident, neither driver steered erratically, and indeed both kept their steering very neutral.

“The stewards checked the driving line of the drivers on pervious laps. Sainz was on or close to his normal racing line, which forms a slight angle away from the right hand wall. From the exit to the point of contact he move approximately one car width further away from the wall. Perez moved approximately half a car width further away from the same wall, being more parallel to the right hand wall.

“It was thus apparent that while ahead, and having the right to drive his line, Sainz did move slightly towards a car that he had limited vision of. At the same time, there was nothing unusual about Perez’s line, but he could have done more to avoid the car that he had better view of.

“In conclusion, the stewards deem this to be a racing incident with neither driver being predominantly at fault, and take no further action.”

Your verdict

Who do you think was responsible for the collision? Should the stewards have issued a penalty? Cast your vote below and have your say in the comments.

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