F1 | Austrian GP | Perez on his incidents with Leclerc. “I am not comfortable with myself”
The Red Bull driver admits he has been too aggressive on Leclerc when forcing him to go off-track twice but he stays on his opinion on the one he had with Norris.
The Austrian Grand Prix offered several incidents during its course and Red Bull’s driver Sergio Perez was responsible for three of them, especially towards Charles Leclerc, who he put off in the gravel twice.
During lap 41, the Red Bull and Ferrari drivers were squabbling over the eighth place, when Perez sent Leclerc off the track at the end of Turn 4. The Mexican was hit with a five-second penalty but before he could do that, Perez decided to do it again.
After the race, the Red Bull driver admitted he was wrong, though.
“With Charles I'm very sorry, because that's not the way I like to race, - Perez admits, after having finished fifth on the track but sixth by stewards’ decision. - You know, I'm not that type of driver that races that way. We were on very dirty air, very hot tyres, very hot brakes. And we were just trying to brake as late as possible, obviously.”
"I haven't seen the incidents, - he adds - but I'm very sorry if I ended up affecting his race because Charles is a driver that races very hard, but always on the limit and I'm the same. So, I'm not happy with myself in that."
Not the race I hope for our home race!
— Sergio Pérez (@SChecoPerez) July 4, 2021
After the incident with Lando my race was very difficult.
I’m very sorry with Charles because that’s not the way I race, but we were on the limit of tyres, dirty air and very hot brakes.
I will move on and come back stronger! #AustrianGP pic.twitter.com/1SdmiYggKG
Motorsport.com asked him if he had spoken to Leclerc after the race, and the Mexican added: "Yeah, basically, I said that what happened from my side but obviously it isn't enough. It's not nice when you have this type of issue, but he knows from my side that I'm not that type of driver and that I'm not comfortable with myself."
In today’s race, Perez raced very aggressively and he has caused another incident, indeed, against Lando Norris. In this case, the one who has been penalised was the Briton who runs the Mexican wide but Horner comments that penalising the McLaren driver was unfair.
