“We’ve spoken already,” Sainz added. “[But] we need to analyse. I’m not someone who wants to put blame on either an excuse or put blame on another driver. It’s racing, everything happens super-fast.
“My feeling today is honestly I did nothing wrong, I didn’t do any erratic manoeuvre, put him against the wall or anything like that. We were just, like every other lap, drifting a bit, a tiny, tiny little bit towards the left because that’s where the racing line is and we just touched. It is what it is.”
Perez reacted furiously over team radio after the incident, labelling Sainz “an idiot”. But the Mexican was more measured as he entered the media pen, having spoken to the stewards after both drivers were summoned to explain their parts in the crash – which forced a Virtual Safety Car, ensuring McLaren’s Oscar Piastri of a second career win, as he held off the sister Ferrari of Charles Leclerc.
“I felt that exiting Turn 2, there was plenty of room between both cars, and within a metre or two, we ended up making contact,” said Perez, ahead of the stewards’ ruling that no further action was necessary. “It’s very unfortunate. It all happened so quickly. I think Carlos was trying to follow the tow from Charles as he went to the inside and that really made things really hard.”