Perez given reprimand for slow pace in qualifying

2017 Australian Grand Prix

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Sergio Perez has been given a formal reprimand for driving too slowly during qualifying.

The Force India driver was found to have exceeded the maximum permitted time of 104 seconds between the two Safety Car lines during Q2.

Australian Grand Prix qualifying in pictures
“The stewards heard from the driver, Sergio Perez and [a] team representative,” noted the stewards, “and determined that he did exceed the time specified by the FIA in Event Document 10 by slightly more than four seconds and was not impeded by any other driver and therefore was driving unnecessarily slowly in violation of Art. 27.4 of the FIA Formula One Sporting Regulations.”

“As Perez did not impede any other driver, the stewards considered a reprimand sufficient.”

Perez qualified 11th on the grid for the Australian Grand Prix after failing to make the cut for Q3 with his final effort.

“It’s disappointing to miss out on the top ten by such a small margin – less than a tenth of a second,” he said.

“However, P11 is not a bad starting position and we can certainly race for good points. All the teams in the midfield seem to be very close to each other in terms of performance and there are going to be very close battles in the race.”

Perez agreed with Max Verstappen’s view that drivers will find it difficult to pass in the race. “Overtaking is difficult here,” he admitted, “especially with these very wide cars, but I will fight hard tomorrow.”

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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4 comments on “Perez given reprimand for slow pace in qualifying”

  1. Profile Photo

    Joao (@johnmilk)
    25th March 2017, 9:19

    Fine for speeding, reprimand for driving to slow.

    Got to love it.

    Any chance this delay was caused by the grarbox problems that Perez spoke of during his interview after qualy?

  2. Profile Photo

    MrBoerns (@mrboerns)
    25th March 2017, 11:42

    What about massa? Didn’t he massively impede perez Forcing his q2 exit….?

    1. Tommy Scragend
      25th March 2017, 12:33

      I saw an interview on Sky where Perez clarified that he was not on a flying lap when he got caught behind Massa.

  3. Tiomkin
    25th March 2017, 19:03

    The Sun was in his eyes, but seeing as he sacked his sponsors for telling a joke…..

Comments are closed.