Sergio Perez will spend much of the rest of the season four penalty points away from an automatic ban following his latest infraction in the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
The Red Bull driver was given a five-second time penalty for leaving his pit box in an unsafe fashion during today’s race. He pulled into the fast lane of the pits in front of Fernando Alonso, triggering a complaint by the Aston Martin driver.
After examining footage of the incident the stewards concluded Perez was at fault as he left his pit box before the team told him he could using their traffic lights. “Car 11 [Perez] was released from a pit stop in an unsafe manner,” they noted. “Car 14 [Alonso] had to take evasive action to avoid a collision.
“What made the situation worse was the fact that car 11 left the pits when there was a red light shown to it (indicating that it should not go out of the pit box).”
Perez said it was “a shame that we got that penalty,” but “luckily it didn’t hurt our race.”
“I think in these scenarios, I was quite close to Max [Verstappen] and everyone was coming in at the same time, we just need a wider pit lane.”
The five-second time penalty made no different to Perez’s finishing position in the race, as he took the chequered flag second, 10 seconds ahead of Charles Leclerc. However his rapid accumulation of penalty points risks becoming a problem.
Any driver who collects 12 penalty points within 12 months receives an automatic one-race ban. Perez has collected eight points over the last 10 rounds, beginning in the Singapore Grand Prix last year. If he picks up another four over the coming 15 rounds he will earn a race ban.
Perez’s penalty points
2023 Singapore Grand Prix: Collision with Alexander Albon – one point
2023 Japanese Grand Prix: Overtook Fernando Alonso under Safety Car conditions – two points
2023 Japanese Grand Prix: Collision with Kevin Magnussen – two points
2023 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix: Collision with Lando Norris – two points
2024 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix: Unsafe release – one point
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2024 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix
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