‘It’s very disappointing’ – Sainz and Perez give their views on dramatic late-race crash in Baku

Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz and Red Bull’s Sergio Perez both exited the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in dramatic fashion on the penultimate lap of the race, following a touch between the two that put both cars in the wall.

Perez had passed Charles Leclerc for P2 going into Lap 50 of 51 but was immediately re-passed by the Monegasque, with Sainz then opportunistically poaching P3 off Perez.

READ MORE: Piastri edges out Leclerc for dramatic Azerbaijan GP win amid late-race chaos

But out of Turn 2 and on the curved straight down to Turn 3, Sainz and Perez made contact, Sainz appearing to drift over into the path of the Red Bull – with the Spaniard giving his version of events after the race.

"I was attacking Charles into Turn 2 and then I exited Turn 2," he explained. "Checo [Perez] was on my left. We normally do a slight drift towards the left into the long straight, which I did like every other lap, and suddenly for some reason I don’t understand, Checo and I collided, which is unfortunate and also very disappointing.

“We’ve spoken already,” Sainz added. “[But] we need to analyse. I’m not someone who wants to put blame on either an excuse or put blame on another driver. It’s racing, everything happens super-fast.

“My feeling today is honestly I did nothing wrong, I didn’t do any erratic manoeuvre, put him against the wall or anything like that. We were just, like every other lap, drifting a bit, a tiny, tiny little bit towards the left because that’s where the racing line is and we just touched. It is what it is.”

READ MORE: ‘We paid the price’ – Verstappen reflects on detrimental car issues that impacted Baku race

Perez reacted furiously over team radio after the incident, labelling Sainz “an idiot”. But the Mexican was more measured as he entered the media pen, having spoken to the stewards after both drivers were summoned to explain their parts in the crash – which forced a Virtual Safety Car, ensuring McLaren’s Oscar Piastri of a second career win, as he held off the sister Ferrari of Charles Leclerc.

“I felt that exiting Turn 2, there was plenty of room between both cars, and within a metre or two, we ended up making contact,” said Perez, ahead of the stewards’ ruling that no further action was necessary. “It’s very unfortunate. It all happened so quickly. I think Carlos was trying to follow the tow from Charles as he went to the inside and that really made things really hard.”

Perez had been looking in contention for his first podium since the Chinese Grand Prix back in April. And the Red Bull driver was at least taking the positives from an improved performance around the Baku City Circuit.

READ MORE: Leclerc admits he didn’t defend ‘as well as I should have’ during P1 fight with Piastri in Baku

“[The pace today is] a massive [positive],” said Perez. “I think we had the pace to fight for the victory today, so we just have to keep it up and hopefully in the coming races, coming weekends, we can be really strong.”

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