Whenever two drivers collide it’s not unusual for each to express anger at the other’s role in the crash.
But following yesterday’s collision which caused the Monaco Grand Prix to be suspended for almost three-quarters of an hour, Sergio Perez’s main complaint was that the incident hadn’t even been investigated.
Should it have been – and should either he or rival Kevin Magnussen been held responsible for their destructive shunt?
Incident
The collision happened on the first lap as cars tackled the uphill run from the first ‘true’ corner, Sainte Devote, to the second, Massenet. At this point the track winds left and right and the ordinary racing line plots a reasonably straight course between the barriers.
However at the start of a race drivers often climb the hill side-by-side with their rivals and have to give them more room. As Magnussen moved to the right-hand of Perez heading up the hill, the pair made contact, triggering a huge crash.
What they said
Perez said Magnussen should have realised he wasn’t far enough alongside the Red Bull to pass and backed out:
It’s lap one, it’s just important if you’re not in the right position, automatically you’re going to end up losing.
I was getting out of the corner. If you see my onboard, there’s no point where you see Kevin. I was just pretty surprised that he kept it flat at that point because it was just very unnecessary.
Sergio Perez
Magnussen believes he was far enough alongside Perez to be left space:
From my point of view I had a good part of my front along Perez’s rear. When he went to the wall, I just got pushed into the wall and made contact with him.
I trusted that he was going to leave a space for me since I was there. It’s not a corner that you’re braking into. It’s just like a little bend on the straight so you have to have a car width otherwise you leave the guy no option.
Kevin Magnussen
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
Magnussen’s team mate Nico Hulkenberg, who was also eliminated in the same collision, described it as follows:
I think it’s somewhat a racing incident. It looked maybe a bit optimistic from Kevin, but I…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at RaceFans…