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Laurence Edmondson, F1 Editor
BAKU, Azerbaijan — The huge penultimate-lap collision between Carlos Sainz and Sergio Pérez at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix has been ruled as a racing incident, with no further action taken against either driver.
Sainz and Pérez collided on lap 50 of 51 in Baku while fighting for third position, resulting in both drivers hitting the track’s barrier at high speed and dropping out of the race.
The incident, which took place on the run between Turn 2 and Turn 3, was investigated by the stewards, but neither driver was found to blame.
“Sainz passed Pérez after Turn 1 and was completely ahead at the apex of Turn 2,” the stewards’ statement said. “With a compromised exit by Sainz, Pérez pulled to the inside of Sainz. Sainz reported that he was aware of Pérez to his inside.
“Pérez, being slightly behind, was in a better position to see the relative location of the cars. But as the two cars approached the wall on the right at the exit of Turn 2, they were about 1m apart.
“From this point and throughout the incident, neither driver steered erratically, and indeed both kept their steering very neutral.
“The stewards checked the driving line of the drivers on pervious laps. Sainz was on or close to his normal racing line, which forms a slight angle away from the right hand wall.
“From the exit to the point of contact he move approximately one car width further away from the wall. Pérez moved approximately half a car width further away from the same wall, being more parallel to the right hand wall.
“It was thus apparent that while ahead, and having the right to drive his line, Sainz did move slightly towards a car that he had limited vision of. At the same time, there was nothing unusual about Pérez’s line, but he could have done more to avoid the car that he had better view of.
“In conclusion, the stewards deem this to be a racing incident with neither driver being predominantly at fault, and take no further action.”
Speaking after the race but before the stewards’ decision, Sainz said both he and Pérez had aimed to benefit from the slipstream of Charles Leclerc ahead and crossed paths.
“I did my normal racing line and the line that we all do on every lap of this track,” he said. “Particularly at Turn 2 we always drift a bit towards the left but without doing any weird or erratic maneuver.
“Charles in front of me was also going to the left and we were just following his slipstream, obviously. And Checo [Pérez], I don’t know, I think decides not to give any kind of movement or space, but it’s too early to say.”
Also speaking before the stewards’ decision, Pérez added: “In my opinion Carlos moved too quickly to follow the tow from Charles.
“It was just wrong time, wrong moment and it resulted in a huge shunt.”