Perez gets support: 'Sometimes in those situations it’s very hard'

Sergio Perez took victory in Singapore last weekend. However, for a while after the race, the Mexican had to fear a penalty for failing to keep ten car lengths away from the safety car. That the race control eventually gave him only a five-second penalty. Johnny Herbert believes this was more than justified.

The former Formula 1 driver points out that the drivers in Singapore had to deal with very wet track conditions. It would ensure that it was not easy for the drivers to follow at the right distance, he told Sky Sports.

"Sometimes in those situations, it’s very hard to get that gap to where you need it to be, especially when the conditions were as tricky as they were," Herbert revealed. "It’s not something that is a big issue as I see it as a racing driver when you’re following that safety car and I don’t think it should affect the race result just because of that."

Herbert compliments race control

However, Herbert saw that the race control decided to take ample time to scrutinise the situation. Several hours after the race, they finally came out with the news about Perez's penalty, which proved the more than seven-second lead to be enough.

"They’re trying to keep it as consistent as they possibly can be because of things, that have happened, where someone has been too close to a safety car, it seems as if that five second penalty is probably the standard thing that we’re going to see in the future. So everybody is very aware of where they stand on that front."