F1 | French GP | Sergio Perez: "It´s a shame that the virtual safety car interfered in the result"
Sergio Perez finished 4th today after he received confusing messages about the VSC
Sergio Perez finished fourth today after losing a tight battle for the podium with Mercedes´ George Russell. The Mexican driver was giving it all but a confusing message as regards where would the virtual Safety car end caught Checo off guard and left him out of the podium.
A failure in the system that communicates the drivers when and where the virtual safety car was going to end left the Red Bull driver confused against George Russell who seemed to have gotten the message right and took the chance to finally clinch the third place.
“It was unfortunate what happened with the virtual safety car. I had the message that it was going to end up in turn 9. So, went for it but didn´t end it up and then I had the message saying it was going to end up all the way….it ended up after turn 12 and I was just so close and it seemed George had different information and he was able to prepare for it.”
Checo couldn´t hide his frustration since he felt the virtual safety car affected the final result of the race and aimed his anger at the system that informs the drivers.
“It´s a shame that the virtual safety car interfered in the result to be honest. It shouldn´t be the case but it was today the case. “
“It was totally wrong with the system. It was something going because it was certainly going to end up out of turn 9 it only ended up out of turn 12.”
Perez´s seemed to be struggling with pace compared to his teammate.
“It wasn´t great today so it will be to analyse couldn´t find a good balance where I was comfortable with.”
Before the misfortune of the VSC Perez and Russell were giving the fans a tight and thrilling battle with controversy included after the Mexican had to cut a chicane to avoid contact. The Briton asked for a penalty that wasn´t considered by the race director.
“Well, If I don´t cut the corner we would have retired both cars basically. He just went for it I was ahead and…yeah…it was out of control so I escaped.”
"I just had to cut the chicane to be honest. If I don´t cut the chicane there would be contact.”
