Race stewards have cleared Charles Leclerc and Sergio Perez after an investigation into the collision between the pair during the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
The incident occured at turn three on lap 15, shortly after a standing restart following a red flag interruption. Leclerc and Perez made contact, sending Perez spinning in front of the field behind them.As drivers swerved to avoid them, George Russell and Nikita Mazepin became involved in another collision, which led to the race being red-flagged a second time.
After speaking to both drivers and reviewing the incident, the stewards “determined that neither driver was predominantly to blame,” they said in a statement.
Leclerc was squeezed between Perez and a wall, leading to the collision. “Charles was in a position where he couldn’t do anything,” said Perez.
“I wasn’t expecting him to be there anymore, because there wasn’t more room for him. And as we were doing the corner he just tangled my rear left tyre.”
Leclerc pointed out their wheels had overlapped which left him unable to back out of a collision. “I was on the outside, and I’m pretty sure he saw me,” the Ferrari driver explained.
“He probably thought I still had the choice of letting down. But the thing is that his rear wheel was there, so I had no choice and I tried to squeeze, like, touch a bit the wall. And then his wheel, is turned.”
“Luckily for me, there was not too much damage.”
Leclerc finished the race in seventh, but Perez was forced to retire due to damage sustained in the accident.
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Ninjenius
5th December 2021, 22:23
Fair call in my opinion. Leclerc was enough alongside to allow him to keep his nose in but did have the opportunity earlier on to back off given the approaching left-hand kink. Likewise, although Perez was somewhat sandwiched the safer option would have been to slightly angle the steering less towards the left as the car on his right had more room to their right than Leclerc had to his left.
RandomMallard (@)
5th December 2021, 23:28
One of the few good decisions made this weekend, along with the judgements given out for Lewis’s FP3 investigations.
The whole of this race was just a catastrophe though
DaveW (@dmw)
6th December 2021, 0:05
Perez was way too optimistic jumping into that sandwich.
BasCB (@bascb)
6th December 2021, 9:58
Yeah, this one really made sense. Charles did not have any room to go, Perez was not aware Charles was still next to him while he was probably watching the car on the outside of him. Had Perez seem Leclerc, he could have gone a bit more to the right, but he didn’t and it led to the accident.
Bound to happen at some time on a track as narrow and bendy closed in with walls as this one.
Euro Brun (@eurobrun)
5th December 2021, 23:39
Racing incident, but Perez could have given more room rather than assuming Leclerc couldn’t be there.
LUCA (@luca)
5th December 2021, 23:50
Racing incident, but leclerc could have lifted since perez had no room to spare, there i fix that for you.
faulty (@faulty)
6th December 2021, 0:05
If both could have done more to avoid it, that’s the definition of racing incident, right?
Hiland (@flyingferrarim)
6th December 2021, 3:01
@eurobrun
Agreed that it was a racing incident. It was actually three wide at that point with Perez as the meat in the sandwich. Neither Perez nor Leclerc had much option from the looks of things.
frood19 (@frood19)
6th December 2021, 0:07
I just watched the channel 4 highlights and this is the first I heard about this incident. Very poor highlights package and it was on really late too. I’ve been watching F1 since 1995 and it’s pretty gutting I’m missing huge chunks of one of the better seasons of recent years. I don’t feel I should have to fork out hundreds to watch, it’s a real shame.
Jere (@jerejj)
6th December 2021, 7:57
Perez’s fault, but I guess him retiring & Leclerc continuing was a big enough consequence.