“It definitely took away my ability to attack Verstappen, as my pace with the Hard was much more like his. In the end I don’t really understand why they didn’t just let me pass in the Safety Car, it was clear that I was ahead of the SC line. We have to understand because the FIA sometimes does these things that nobody understands. We talked to all the drivers and no one knows why they didn’t let me pass immediately, so that at the restart I could have fought with Max. Formula 1 things that we still have to fix ”. Thus Carlos Sainz at the end of the race in the interviews underlined his disappointment regarding the fact that during the Safety Car Sergio Perez maintained the third position taken irregularly at the time of the exit from the pits of Carlos Sainz, who had the right of way to occupy the position behind Leclerc and Verstappen.
Red Bull may have found in the regulation the perfect shield to protect Verstappen’s second position by returning the position to Sainz in a ‘textbook’ manner. During the Safety Car regime, in fact, there is no change of position behind the safety car with the exception of course of the permission to the drivers to split which is given through clear instructions by the Safety Car and the Race Direction (even if a car proceeds slowly to the point of being dangerous it is possible to overtake it). The reason why positions are not exchanged under the SC is obviously in favor of safety to avoid any misunderstandings and potentially dangerous situations for the marshals working on the track. Obviously for Red Bull this literal interpretation of the regulation was useful yesterday and therefore Perez moved after the first chicane thus leaving way to Sainz when Verstappen was already far from the Ferrari F1-75 launched in pursuit of that number # 16.
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