Homeboy Sergio Perez witnessed a heartbreak at his home Grand Prix last week. In the midst of a challenging season, Checo wanted to stand out in front of his home crowd in Mexico. However, the entire race weekend turned from bad to terrible in the blink of an eye. For starters, the Red Bull driver was out-qualified by AlphaTauri’s Daniel Ricciardo during qualifying.
Still, Sergio Perez did not back down and fought back during the main race on Sunday. Checo delivered a great start by covering two places before turn one of the initial lap and wanted to capitalize the start into a lead. However, Perez’s happiness was short-lived as he crashed into Charles Leclerc. Now, out of nowhere, Checo’s Red Bull teammate, Max Verstappen, has been partially blamed for the crash.
Max Verstappen’s One Move Led To Sergio Perez’s Turn One Crash In Mexico, Says Mercedes Rookie!
The recently concluded Mexican Grand Prix took a dramatic switch at turn one of the first lap. Homeboy Sergio Perez had a terrific start, and he went aggressive to capitalize the start into a lead. However, Checo made an unnecessary, ambitious move, which led to a heartbreaking DNF. Perez closed in on Charles Leclerc, who was right in the middle of two Red Bull cars. Neither of the drivers left space for Leclerc, who braked late and crashed into Checo. The collision’s impact sent the homeboy’s RB19 in the air, and just like that, Checo was out of the race. Post-race, the Red Bull driver did admit his mistake and called it an unfortunate incident.
However, Mercedes development driver Esteban Gutierrez partially blamed Max Verstappen for the crash. The Mexican driver first lauded Sergio Perez for his bravery. He believes that any driver in Checo’s position would have done the same thing after having a dream start. But he was caught in an unfortunate situation as he found two cars gunning for the lead at the same time. Esteban added that Verstappen also had a role to play. On his side, he pushed Leclerc to the left, which diminished the margin of space for the Ferrari driver. “So, if you think about it, yes, it was probably a bit too aggressive. But yeah, it’s just a shame,” said Gutierrez.
Verstappen Says Pressure Got The Better Of Red Bull Mate At Mexico!
Meanwhile, Max Verstappen also shared his take on the entire incident. He said that Sergio Perez made an aggressive and overly ambitious move. It was a proper racing incident. But at the same time, he understands where his Red Bull teammate was coming from. Max said that Checo was under pressure to perform in front of his home crowd amid a tough season.
Thus, he saw an opening on turn one and went blindly to take the lead. It’s an unfortunate situation for Sergio Perez to go down like this in front of his home fans. Nonetheless, Verstappen and the entire Red Bull organization are standing behind Perez in these challenging times. Checo will have the complete support of his team going ahead into the final stretch of the painful season.