Why Sergio Perez overtake was deemed legal despite off-track excursion

Perez and Bottas in France — Photo: © LAT Images

French Grand Prix

Why Perez overtake was deemed legal despite off-track excursion

Perez passed Bottas on lap 49 but the Finn believed the move to have been completed off the track

Ian Parkes & Sam Hall

Monday 21 June 2021 10:28

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FIA race director Michael Masi has explained why Sergio Perez was not ordered to hand back third place to Mercedes' Valtteri Bottas despite initial claims the pass was completed off the track.

On lap 49 of 53, Bottas was overtaken by the Red Bull driver at the right-hand corner of Signes.

Despite a margin to pit for new tyres and bank the extra point for the fastest lap, Mercedes kept him on track in the hope he would be promoted to third via a penalty for the Mexican. The stewards, however, deemed no lasting advantage had been gained by Perez.

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Masi explained: “With Sergio’s incident overtaking Valtteri, which is why it was investigated by the stewards, the stewards deemed that the overtaking manoeuvre had been completed firstly before Sergio left the track.

“Once he did leave the track, the stewards also deemed that he gave back any lasting advantage immediately, so accordingly they found that no further action was required in that circumstance."

Bahrain memories in France

Casting his mind back to the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix, Masi used the instance of Max Verstappen being instructed to cede position to Lewis Hamilton to further explain why this decision had been reached.

He added: “If we had looked at it probably compared to the incident in Bahrain earlier in the year where Max, on the other hand, actually overtook another car off the track, that is why he was deemed he had to give the position back.

“So two very different circumstances when trying to compare those two incidents.”