After running in the wet on slick tyres, Sergio Perez ended up spinning and hitting the barriers at Turn 6 during the 53rd lap of the Canadian Grand Prix.
Perez severely damaged the rear wing of his Red Bull against the outside wall, but the team asked him to bring the car back to the pits.
As he slowly returned to the pits, Perez scattered more debris from his RB20, which prompted FIA stewards to investigate whether Red Bull had breached the rules by allowing an unsafe car to continue.
The Commission found Perez and Red Bull guilty of violating the corresponding article of the sporting regulations and handed Perez a three-place grid penalty for the next race in Barcelona. The team will also have to pay a fine of 25,000 euros for the infringement.
During the hearing, Red Bull admitted that it had asked the Mexican to stay out to avoid an intervention by the Safety Car.
His teammate Max Verstappen was leading the race by a five-second margin over McLaren’s Lando Norris, which he would have lost if Perez had parked his RB20 on the spot.
A Red Bull mechanic gathers the remains of the rear wing from the car of Sergio Perez, Red Bull Racing RB20
Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images
In their statement, the stewards explained their decision as follows: “After contact with the barriers at Turn 6, the driver continued on the track for the rest of the lap with a significantly damaged car, thus losing several fiberglass parts. carbon during the return to the pits”.
“The team confirmed at the hearing that the driver had been advised to bring the car back to the pits because he was trying to avoid a Safety Car situation.”
“The stewards determine that, in addition to a financial sanction for the team, a sporting sanction is necessary due to the safety implications of the incident. The sanction is imposed in line with precedents.”
The penalty on the starting grid of the Spanish Grand Prix sealed a Canadian weekend to forget for Perez, who had started 16th after being eliminated in Q1. At the time of the accident at Turn 6, Perez had moved up to 13th place, but was still outside the points.
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