Perez admits Verstappen factor in Red Bull penalty 'shame' - Top Three verdict

Sergio Perez has explained what were the main causes of his early five second penalty at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

The Mexican followed Max Verstappen home to help Red Bull secure a second consecutive 1-2 in the Middle East, helping to hand them the perfect start to the season ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc in third.

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A lap six safety car forced most of the field to stop for tyres early, including Perez who found himself nearly tangling with Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso.

He was handed a five second penalty for the incident, but such was the RB20’s superiority over the rest of the pack, he was still able to cruise to a podium finish alongside Verstappen and Leclerc.

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Here’s what the drivers had to say post-race...

Max Verstappen

“Overall, a fantastic weekend for the whole team and myself,” he said. “I felt really good with the car and it was the same in the race.

“The last stint was a bit longer than we would have liked but with the Safety Car you had to go for it.

“So, the last few laps with cold tyres and backmarkers it was a bit slippery but we had good pace all-around and could manage it, so overall very pleased.”

Sergio Perez

“We definitely made some good progress,” said Perez. “I just think it was a shame we qualified out of the front row because we had a great start. Unfortunately, Charles really kept it together and we couldn’t get through. It was a nice fight.

“And later on it was quite a compromised race with the safety car there so early, it was a very long stint on the hard tyres.

“But overall it’s a great day for the team. It’s a very different track to Bahrain and we’re keeping strong, so we just have to keep this momentum going,” he continued.

“It was a shame that we got that penalty. Luckily, it didn’t hurt our race, but in this scenario I was quite close to Max and everyone was coming in at the same time, we just didn’t have a wide enough pit lane.”

Charles Leclerc

“We had quite good pace because we had the fastest lap at the end and I got helped by DRS,” Leclerc remarked.

“Overall, the feeling was pretty good. It was a bit of a boring race because Red Bull were a bit too quick and behind we had a gap.

“But we took the maximum points we could today and that was the target, so that's great.”

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