A shower of criticism falls on Sergio Pérez
Sergio Pérez was one of the main actors in the Monaco Grand Prix this Sunday. The Mexican was very aggressive during the race until his collision with Kimi Räikkönen, which cost him, in addition to a retirement a few laps from the finish, a flurry of criticism coming notably from the Finnish driver but also from Eric Boullier and Fernando Alonso, who also crossed his path.
Sergio Pérez had a rather eventful Sunday. After the start of the race, which went off without incident, the Mexican was immediately very aggressive towards his teammate Jenson Button. Their tough battles did not seem, at least on the surface, to bother the Briton as he stated after the race: « My first laps were good – I overtook Adrian [Sutil] and tried to pass Fernando [Alonso] at the hairpin. I touched his rear wheel, so I wasn’t very attentive when Checo [Sergio Pérez] made a great move out of the tunnel at the Port Chicane braking. »
However, Pérez then challenged other drivers in a more or less proper manner. He indeed had a run-in with Fernando Alonso at the port chicane, forcing the Spanish driver to cut the chicane. After analyzing the footage and the situation, Alonso had to give back his position to the Mexican, as the track officials determined that the double world champion and his Ferrari had gained an advantage from bypassing the corner.
Is this why Alonso seems a little irritated by Pérez’s behavior? He certainly expressed his feelings at the end of the race as reported by our colleagues from Sky Sport F1: « Really, I don’t want to pay too much attention to these kinds of things. What matters most is knowing Felipe is okay, and the second most important thing is knowing that Rosberg won the race. As for Pérez, he parked his car at Rascasse, that’s just what we can say. He has been lucky this year in two or three incidents. In Bahrain, he was almost in contact with Jenson, and I had to go off track to avoid him. Here, at the chicane, I avoided contact again, but Kimi was not lucky because he couldn’t avoid him. But only McLaren seems happy with him. »
Comments confirmed by Kimi Räikkönen, whose race was ruined by a very optimistic maneuver by the Mexican at the end of the race: « It’s a stupid move from Sergio and it cost us a lot of points against Vettel for the championship. »
On his side, Eric Boullier, the sporting director of the Lotus team, is also frustrated by his team’s result and Pérez’s behavior: « He tried to overtake Kimi once and, if you watch the video, he attempted to brake very, very late without knowing Kimi’s braking point. I think he overdid it. He nearly collided with his teammate in Bahrain, and there was quite a bit of action here too. It seems like he’s trying to be too aggressive too often and attempting things that are, most of the time, impossible to achieve. »
