Formula 1 | Heavy crash in Baku: Pérez blames Sainz

The Azerbaijan Grand Prix ended on Sunday with the dramatic crash of Sergio Pérez and Carlos Sainz. Red Bull clearly sees the question of blame and is mourning the loss of important points in Formula 1.

“In my opinion, Carlos moved too fast to get into the slipstream of Charles [Leclerc] “I was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time,” the Mexican complained to Sky Sports after the race.

Pérez had previously tried to overtake Leclerc on the penultimate lap and take second place. But the Monegasque fended off the attack in turn one. The beneficiary of the duel was Carlos Sainz, who was able to push past Pérez for a short time.

The Red Bull driver counterattacked in turn two. At the end of the corner, Sainz and Pérez fought a side-by-side acceleration duel before Verstappen's colleague touched his opponents' rear wheel. Sainz lost control, his car turned sideways and he and Pérez hit the barrier.

F1 expert shares Red Bull view

“It's really unfortunate that this happened. I'm speechless. This is a disaster for the World Championship,” said Pérez, disappointed. Due to his retirement, McLaren has now overtaken Red Bull in the constructors' championship.

Team boss Christian Horner also appeared resigned. The incident with Sainz had “destroyed Sergio's race, caused a lot of damage to the car and cost us important points in the World Championship,” he criticized.

Meanwhile, the Briton showed sympathy towards his driver. “He deserved more,” Horner claimed: “That is very disappointing. He should have been on the podium at the very least.” If the race had gone perfectly, Pérez could even have won.

“Sky” expert Karun Chandhok suggests that Red Bull is to blame. “Unfortunately, I think Carlos has to take responsibility for this,” he claims.

Sainz, meanwhile, denied all blame. “I don't think I was too aggressive. Charles and I drifted a little towards the middle, as we always do, and for some reason I don't understand, Checo didn't make room and we touched,” he said.

“It's a racing accident. We have to see what Checo could have done differently, but I don't want to blame anyone until I've seen and analyzed the images,” Sainz continued.