Sergio Perez has insisted he did not deliberately crash his car during qualifying for the Monaco Grand Prix, after speculation over the incident was prompted by the events of the last round in Brazil.
His team mate Max Verstappen refused an instruction by Red Bull to let Perez overtake him on the final lap of last weekend’s race. Verstappen declined to explain the reasons for his failure to co-operate. Asked whether it related to the events of Monaco, Verstappen said: “You can decide that. I’m not going to say.”
Perez hit a barrier at the exit of Portier during his final run in Q3. The crash meant other drivers were unable to improve their times and ensured Perez qualified third, ahead of Verstappen, both behind their Ferrari rivals.
He insisted the crash had not been deliberate. “Everyone makes mistakes in Monaco,” said Perez. “Already I nearly crashed into turn one. Everyone makes mistakes in Monaco, or in general places in qualifying, and it’s not like it was done on purpose.”
He described how he was “chasing the lap time in Monaco” on his final effort. “You can review the whole lap. You can already see the line already in turn one, I’m just giving it everything.
“It’s the last run of Q3, and people just make mistakes, you know, and that’s really it when you are chasing the lap time. You can already see that from turn one I was playing with the throttle, because it was what I was losing the lap time, and you can see already into turn one that I nearly lost it already.”
Reports the team had investigated the crash internally, and that Perez had owned up to hitting the barrier on purpose, were false rumours, said Perez.
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“That rumour is wrong,” he said. “That’s just speculation from the media out there and just people creating rumours. We are all aware of what was going on within the team and we want to keep everything within the team.”
The suggestions he might have crashed on purpose are “just part of the sport on the speculation people like to make” said Perez. “To me, this happened so many races ago that it’s totally irrelevant.
“I’m thinking about this weekend. I’m thinking about making sure the team is in good spirits because we’ve had a tremendous season, it’s been a hell of a year for Red Bull. And I don’t want any of this to take any enjoyment for any of the guys…
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