Sergio Perez was given a penalty after Red Bull admitted they wanted him to drive back to the pits with an unsafe car to avoid a safety car ruining Max Verstappen’s Montreal race.
Perez lost control of his car on lap 51 of the race, span around and hit the barrier with the rear of his Red Bull. It caused significant damage to the rear wing, though the engine was still running and he was able to keep moving.
However, the damaged wing was hanging precariously off the back of his car and presented a significant danger to others. Instead of pulling over, though, Perez limped back to the pits to retire the car.
But the stewards were unimpressed with that decision. Feeling the Mexican should have pulled over in a safe place at the earlier opportunity, they fined Red Bull £21,000 and gave Perez a three-place grid drop for the next race, the Spanish Grand Prix.
Explaining their side of the story, Red Bull admitted they wanted Perez to return to the pit lane because they wanted to avoid a safety car. Team-mate Verstappen was leading the race and bunching the pack up would have increased the risk of him failing to keep that place.
After their investigation, the stewards found that Perez had “failed to leave the track with serious mechanical difficulties after significantly damaging the rear wing”. That, they felt, was a breach of Article 26.10 of the F1 sporting regulations.
In an official decision document, they wrote: “After making contact with the barriers in turn six, the driver continued on track for the remainder of the lap with a significantly damaged car and thereby lost several carbon fibre parts on the way back to the pits.
