It was necessary to wait until 20:00 Italian time in order to have a final decision on the part of the Race Direction on whether or not to confirm the victory of Sergio Perezclimbed to the top step of the podium in Singapore Grand Prix. The Mexican of Red Bull had in fact ended up under investigation for having generated a space greater than ten cars between himself and the Safety Car in two circumstances, a maneuver prohibited by the sporting regulations.
However, hours after the episode on the track, the International Federation actually penalized the number 11 of Red Bull, but only with the removal of 5 seconds from the race time and with a reprimand. With this decision, Perez did not however lose his leadership, thanks to the advantage over Charles Leclerc, second classified, exceeding five seconds. A choice that is already generating controversy for the timing and for the sentence, even if Perez himself did not expect a penalty.
In fact, even in the moments before the official announcement, the Mexican had seemed calm about the move of the Race Direction, to the point of calmly explaining his version of events in this way: “There was some communication problem – said the Mexican to the microphones of Sky Sport F1 – where I could keep up with the Safety Car, it went very slowly. On the contrary, in areas where I couldn’t keep up with him, he was fast. So there were a few communication errors. But I believe that these conditions are not normal. It is completely understandable that the conditions in which we found ourselves and which we faced, especially in the last sector, were very difficult. So yes, I would not have expected further measuresbecause the commissioners were satisfied with my explanation and understood it ”.
Also Christian Hornerteam principal of Red Bull, admitted that he would have been surprised if the Race Direction had assigned a more severe penalty to the detriment of Perez: “I would have been amazed – he added – they heard his version of the story, but I think there are many precedents, even in the recent past, in which there has been a concertation both upstream and downstream of the grid. We have also seen this in the training laps. The extenuating circumstances were that the Safety Car was driving very slowly. They had done 30 laps on intermediate tires and ended up with a set of slicks. You could hear Checo asking to go faster. He had no tire temperature. I would have been absolutely amazed if there had been something ”.
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