Perez with scathing verdict on Magnussen: 'He doesn't think about the outcome'
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- Nicole Mulder
Sergio Perez escaped with a scare after a very serious crash just after the start of the Monaco Grand Prix. He was hit by Kevin Magnussen, after which the Red Bull Racing driver was adrift and hit Nico Hulkenberg's Haas. All the drivers involved were fine, but there was little left of Perez's RB20. The Mexican tells his side of the story.
In conversation with various media, including GPblog, Perez, when asked, first of all let it be known how he is doing. "Just a little bit shaky. It was quite a heavy impact," said the Red Bull driver, who got away from the crash admirably well.
Perez blames Magnussen
Magnussen was of the opinion that the incident was mainly a Perez's fault. The latter has a different view. "If you see my onboard, at no point do you see Kevin's car not even close to being alongside me. And you could see that the wall is just getting closer and closer. And to keep it flat out, there was only one way out of it," Perez said.
"It was either contact with my car, with the barrier. There was just simply no room for both cars. And at some point, he had to realise that I'd be in that location. And many times, when you are the car behind, you just have to realise that it's time to back off.," he added.
Magnussen clearly saw it differently and instead put the blame on Perez. On the other hand, the Mexican clearly disagreed with the Haas driver. "I think he clearly shouldn't be there in the first place, because there is just one way to get out of that. Where it will be just to hit the wall, either hit the wall or hit my car. So how does he want me to leave him room if he's not even alongside, you know? There's a point where you see the wall coming to you, and you just have to back off. It has happened to me many times. And there is a point where you just have to back off."
Perez surprised at lack of FIA investigation
The Mexican finds it incomprehensible that the incident was not investigated by the stewards. "I'm very surprised, because of the amount of damage and how dangerous the damage was. I'm really fairly surprised. I'm really surprised. I think I get that it’s lap one, just let them race. But I think this was more dangerous driving, just to keep it flat out knowing that contact was to come at some point. I think that was some dangerous driving," Perez's declared.