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Whiting: Hard to believe Pérez drove into Sirotkin

Whiting: "Hard to believe" Pérez drove into Sirotkin

17-09-2018 13:01
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Nicolás Quarles van Ufford

Formula One race director Charlie Whiting has said that he finds it "hard to believe" that Sergio Pérez deliberately steered into Sergey Sirotkin during the Singapore Grand Prix, even though he did give the Mexican a penalty.

Pérez had grown frustrated during the race, as he got stuck behind Sirotkin's Williams after an early stop. The Russian did very well to defend from Pérez, but the Force India driver grew frustrated.

When he eventually got past, he steered into Sirotkin, causing damage on both cars. Pérez rightfully got hit with a drive-through penalty, although some people cried out for a heavier penalty, and some even wanted a black flag. While it did look deliberate, Whiting thinks it was just poor judgement from the Force India driver.

“I haven’t spoken to him, nor have the stewards as far as I’m aware,” he told Motorsport.

"But it’s hard to believe a driver would intend to hit a [rival's] car.

“He’d been trying hard to get past Sirotkin, and he looked a little bit frustrated, and I just think he misjudged how far in front he was in front of him.

“You saw how closely they were racing all the way through [Turns] 14-15-16-17, and I think he just misjudged it.”

Comparing to last season's incident between Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton, when the German steered into Hamilton under a yellow flag out of frustration, Whiting thinks that this was a different situation.

“The safety car was out in Baku,”  he explained.

“You can say it was, I wouldn’t say safer, but less likely to cause an accident than when at racing speeds. 

"But that’s a decision that the stewards took, and presumably they took that into account.”