Sergio Perez has blamed a steering wheel issue that prevented him from adjusting his brake balance for his clash with Nico Hulkenberg at Silverstone.
Perez had worked his way into contention for the points-paying positions at the British Grand Prix but a steering wheel problem left him unable to change his brake balance as required.
Perez clipped Hulkenberg into Brooklands at the restart and lost his front wing, dropping him to the rear of the field, where he remained through to the chequered flag.
“I had a fantastic first stint, everything was looking great, the team deserved a massive result, P7 was on the cards,” Perez explained post-race.
“We missed the Safety Car by one lap and we had a problem with the steering wheel and I couldn’t change my brake balance.
“I ended up with a massive forward brake balance, I couldn’t stop the car, ended up hitting Nico, already apologised to him, nothing I could have done, extremely unlucky day for us, we did a fantastic day up to that.”
Racing Point ended empty-handed for the third event in succession as Perez’s team-mate Lance Stroll mustered only 13th.
“I think it’s a weekend to forget, to be honest,” said Stroll. “Things just haven’t worked out for us.
“I had a good start and I was up three places by the end of the first lap. Unfortunately we had to pit earlier than planned to remove some debris from my left front brake duct and that really hurt our strategy.”
