Sergio Perez’s five-place grid penalty has been upheld by the Austrian race stewards, despite agreeing to review the matter following ‘new evidence’ from Force India.
A meeting took place in Spielberg to decide whether or not the new evidence proved Perez was innocent and should be stripped of the penalty. However they agreed with the original decision and he will therefore start five places lower than he qualifies.
A statement read: “The driver of Car 11 [Perez] contended that the new element(s) evidenced that in defending his position he was exercising his right, under Article 20.4 of the 2014 Formula One Sporting Regulations, to use the whole track.
“However, it was clear to the stewards that the defence of his position occurred in the braking area. Article 20.4 specifically states that any right to defend by using the whole track must occur prior to any braking area. Accordingly the driver of Car 11 was not entitled to defend his position in the manner he did.”
Upon hearing the news, Perez remained confident he was correct to challenge the penalty, but agreed to move on from the incident.
“We went there to show all the evidence that we had, the data, the line and the pictures that we couldn’t show in Montreal,” he said. “For that reason we felt very confident that we had the proof. The stewards looked to be quite sensible and agreed to an extent with everything I said, but then the situation didn’t change at all.
“I’m a bit disappointed, but it’s time to move on and tomorrow it will be a big pain to be five places back on this track that is so small and difficult to overtake. I don’t want to keep talking about the accident and what happened and what did not. It’s time to move on together as a team and find everything we can for Sunday. Tomorrow will not be so important for us, it will be Sunday.”
