Sergio Perez, Red Bull, Red Bull Ring, 2021

“No bad feelings” between Leclerc and Perez after clashes

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In the round-up: Charles Leclerc says he has already cleared the air with Sergio Perez after venting his frustration at the Red Bull driver during the Austrian Grand Prix.

In brief

Leclerc and Perez clear the air

Leclerc and Perez clashes twice during yesterday’s race, the Ferrari driver fuming at his rival on the radio. But speaking after the race he said the pair cleared the air soon afterwards.

“We’ve spoken now,” said Leclerc. “The air is clear. There’s no bad feelings after this.

“Obviously in the car it’s very frustrating because twice I saw an opportunity, there was not many opportunities, but I went for it and it didn’t work because I had no space in exit. It’s part of the game, though.”

Raikkonen puzzled by Vettel crash

After receiving a 20-second time penalty for a collision with Sebastian Vettel, Kimi Raikkonen was at a loss to explain the last-lap crash between the pair.

The Alfa Romeo driver admitted he could see his rival when they made contact at the exit of turn four. “I saw him there,” said Raikkonen. “I don’t know how we end up, I don’t know if I moved or he moved, I’ll have to see it [again].”

“Obviously our wheels touched and off we went,” he added. “An unfortunate end but it didn’t really change much, we were out of the points.”

Mazepin didn’t enjoy Red Bull Ring repeat

Nikita Mazepin, Haas, Red Bull Ring, 2021
Mazepin collected a penalty on the last lap of the race
After finishing last and collecting a 30-second time penalty for a yellow flag infringement, Nikita Mazepin admitted he did not enjoy running two consecutive race weekends at the same track.

“I think I would have preferred to go somewhere else in the beginning of the weekend,” he said. “Preferably somewhere where I’ve never been so I could learn, at least, a new track. I guess the positives out of this is I’ve done shitloads of laps and burned some calories.”

Arthur Leclerc cleared after hospital check

The younger Leclerc sibling was taken to hospital following his alarming turn four crash with Clement Novalak in yesterday morning’s F3 race at the Red Bull Ring. The FIA said examination of the Prema driver “revealed no ongoing issues and he was discharged”.

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Comment of the day

A wide range of different views on the incidents involved Lando Norris and Sergio Perez yesterday were expressed:

I don’t think the Norris one was worthy of a penalty. There are subtleties of difference between the two similar incidents that make them different contextually.

Perez is already running in too deep on exit trying to go around the outside, I’m not convinced he was actually staying on track even if Norris didn’t squeeze him that hard, there was just enough room on the kerb and if Perez had lifted sooner, he’d have stayed on. He stayed in it trying to wall of death it around the outside and was probably off regardless, running out of grip.

For me that was hard racing. Norris probably ends up with the penalty purely because Perez lost so many places with the off.

The Perez penalty at the same corner was fair however, Leclerc was making the corner, in the corner and Perez squeezed him via a wheel bang onto the gravel.
Mark (@Mrcento)

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On this day in motorsport

Alain Prost, Renault, Dijon, 1981
Alain Prost took his first of 51 wins today in 1981
  • 40 years ago today Alain Prost won his first grand prix. It was a thoroughly French affair: Prost triumphed for Renault at Dijon on Michelin tyres. The race was run in two parts due to rain.

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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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17 comments on ““No bad feelings” between Leclerc and Perez after clashes”

  1. CotdI agree that Perez was not as close as lec was but in the end there was not enough space, if you are going to penalise one you must penalise the other. IMO no penalty.

  2. It was a stupid cotd. But at least Mark (@Mrcento) was consistent. Perez on the wrong side are constant.

    1. Bit unnecessary. Just say you don’t agree with the comment, no need for name-calling.

  3. Why do they resort to the name calling?

  4. Checo was in for a change this weekend. Very good on a Saturday and Maldonadoesque on Sunday.

  5. Before the weekend

    I think it’s useful. You do get to know the track very well by doing a race weekend. And I think I’ve never started an FP1 as prepared as I’m doing now.

    During the weekend

    I’m quite lost in that respect because coming from junior formulas, more aero balance means more oversteer. But in F1 it definitely doesn’t mean that.

    After the weekend

    I think I would have preferred to go somewhere else in the beginning of the weekend, preferably somewhere where I’ve never been so I could learn, at least, a new track.

    It is rather sad that this guy is racing in F1…

    1. Agreed. The rare opportunity for a 2nd race at the same venue is a perfect opportunity to show that you are learning, improving and can put in a stronger performance, even with a bad car.
      Clearly he’s not keen on exposing the fact that he isn’t improving. A new track to learn gives him an excuse.

    2. Because he answered questions in the media?

      Let me guess – you’ve never gone into something with optimism or confidence, had a bad day and changed your feeling about it when questioned immediately afterwards?

      It’s rather sad that people focus so much of their time and effort on him.

    3. Money matters now. Unless…the tally is 3 numbers higher than his number.

  6. COTD: To me Norris’ move did not look deliberate to push him off track, while Perez on Leclerc, based on the body languages of the car and steering wheels, definitely looked on purpose to force Leclerc onto the gravel. But one thing about Leclerc, he has tried moves at unusual spots ever since he moved to Ferrari. I was really shocked to see how good the Ferrari was at turn 4 and turn 6 yesterday. He outbraked a Red Bull….

    1. Indeed. Leclerc gets some stick for being messy at times (last week), but when he’s on it (this week), he is outdriving the car. Had he made it past Perez at the first attempt, there is no reason to think that he couldn’t have stayed ahead and taken 5th. Instead, he used up his tyres behind Perez and ended up dropping back.

      At least Sainz was able to steal 5th thanks to Perez’s time penalties. It would have been a pointless penalty if Perez had managed to get a +10s gap.

      1. @eurobrun And Perez was very close at nullifying the combined penalty impact until Sainz got the gap back below 10 seconds through his tyre advantage.

  7. I was at that race, 40 years ago in Dijon, was a teenager, Prost first win. Only F1 race I attended live.

    We passed below the barriers and watched the race from behind the rails on the inside at the end of the straight line. No one kicked us out. Imagine doing this now.

    1. nice 👍

  8. At least some positives for Mazepin, if nothing else, LOL.
    Partly excuses, but also understandable.

    The only penalty which I disagree with is for the latter Perez/Leclerc incident.

  9. Just shows that these team radios, after two drivers make contact, are just for entertainment purposes and nothing else. The media just want to sell us a great story, regardless of the real facts. Just like the last two years, when they wanted us to believe that Seb and Charles hate each other.
    As Seb said a couple of years ago: In the heat of the moment you may say some words you don’t really mean. The frustration just gets the better of you and you can’t think rationally.

    I wonder what might have happened if RB told Perez about Norris’ penalty. Would he have done the same? I believe he wouldn’t have.

  10. Re Perez/Leclerc: Eight years ago, no air was cleared.
    Re Raikkonen: First time that two former teammates collided since Singapore 2019.
    Re Mazepin: I liked it though. Opinions differ.
    Re Alonso: He won league titles, made turnarounds, won by big margins and even sent teams to the Championship.

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