Carlos Sainz has insisted that he was maintaining his”normal racing line” during the clash which saw him and Sergio Perez retire in Formula 1’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Sainz was pursuing a podium when he caught Perez in the closing exchanges as the Mexican was tucked up behind Charles Leclerc, who was struggling on his tyres.
The Spaniard capitalised when Leclerc and Perez diced into Turn 1 on the penultimate lap to cut underneath the Red Bull to rise into third place behind his team-mate.
However, Sainz’s position in the top three was shortlived as a wide moment at Turn 2 when a switch to Leclerc’s outside stalled his momentum onto the back straight.
Sainz’s hold-up in putting the throttle down allowed Perez to pull back alongside and the two ended up colliding in bizarre circumstances to end up against the barrier.
But while Sainz seemed to have moved towards Perez to instigate their race-ending touch, the Ferrari driver has argued that was the line he had taken across the race.
Asked what he was planning to tell the FIA Stewards, Sainz replied: “That I did my normal racing line and the line that we all do on every lap of this track.
“Exiting Turn 2, we always drift a bit towards the left, but without doing any weird or erratic manoeuvre.
“Charles in front of me is going to the left also. I’m just following his slipstream, and I don’t know, Checo decides not to give him any kind of movement or space.”
Sainz was adamant that he was blameless in the incident, as he rued missing out on the chance to have both Ferrari drivers on the podium as Leclerc came second.
“I hit the barrier straight on, the concrete wall,” he explained. “I was coming [up] very quick behind Charles and Checo.
“I had saved my tyres well. I overtook Checo, he was fighting Charles and then we exited Turn 2. I did my normal racing line.
“I didn’t do any strange manoeuvres or anything. And for some reason that I still don’t understand, we collided.
“I think he had plenty of space, I didn’t do any strange movement.
“But I guess that’s racing sometimes – you do 48 laps without anything then you get to two laps to go and things like this happen.”
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