Sergio Perez was branded “reckless” by the United States Grand Prix stewards following his clash with Kimi Raikkonen and Adrian Sutil which saw himself and the Sauber driver retire from the race.
In light of the incident, the stewards imposed a seven-place grid penalty for the Brazilian GP, meaning Perez will start seven places lower than he qualifies for the race.
He also had two penalty points added to his racing licence.
The Mexican driver attempted an overtake on Sutil on the opening lap, but hit Raikkonen’s rear and impacted the side of Sutil who had secured Sauber’s best grid position of the season in tenth.
The crash ended both their races and a Safety Car had to be deployed to clear the wreckage.
After the race, the stewards explained that Perez “could not reasonably have expected to complete the manoeuvre,” and branded him “reckless”.
The Force India driver believed he could have scored points if it hadn’t been for the opening lap collision.
“What happened today is really unfortunate,” he said. “I made a move on Adrian at Turn 15 when he left the door open, so I went up the inside. Then Adrian started to close the door and I had to try and brake later than him. By doing so I was unable to avoid contact with Kimi [Raikkonen], which caused me to make contact with Adrian also. I just didn’t expect Kimi to be in that position.
“It’s a big shame because I had a great chance to keep up my run of points finishes and I was determined to do well in such an important race. I feel very sorry for all my fans who came to support me this weekend and I’m disappointed I could not give them a race to remember.”
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