Sergio Pérez struggled on Saturday at the Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix, as he was eliminated in the first segment of qualifying. Given the difficulties associated with trying to overtake on the tight Monte Carlo streets, he faced an uphill battle to try and get into the points.
That battle ended on the opening lap, as Pérez was involved in a massive three-car accident with Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hülkenberg that drew a red flag and caused substantial damage to all three cars.
Footage of the incident led many to believe that a penalty would be coming for Magnussen, who is just two penalty points on his Super License away from a one-race ban. However, race officials quickly decided the incident did not merit further investigation, leaving the Red Bull driver incredulous.
“It’s lap one. I lost a position to one of the [Saubers] and obviously it’s lap one, it’s just important if you’re not in the right position, automatically you’re going to end up losing,” said Pérez to F1.com after his race came to an early end.
“I was getting out of the corner … on my onboard there is no point where you see Kevin and I was just pretty surprised that he kept it flat at that point, because it was just very unnecessary. We had a lot of damage, we had a very dangerous incident. It was a massive incident, and my car is completely destroyed.
“I’m very disappointed that it didn’t get investigated because it was a massive incident,”
From his point of view, Magnussen put the blame on Pérez, making the case that the Red Bull driver left him no room along the barrier, and that he had nowhere to go.
“I think I was with my front alongside Perez’s rear, from the exit of Turn 1 on the run up to Turn 3. He goes towards the wall, the wall comes a little bit back towards the track, and I had nowhere to go,” said Magnussen to F1.com.
“I don’t know if he didn’t see me or what, but I can’t just disappear out of the blue. I made contact with the wall and him at the same time, and unfortunately we had a crash. It’s always frustrating. Also a crash like this is a big cost for the team, in terms of spare parts and having to make new parts – a lot of work for the guys. It’s never good.”
You can see the collision from multiple angles here:
The third driver involved in the incident, Hülkenberg, truly had nowhere to go and was swept up in the collision. That vantage point may have been costly as far as his race, but gave him perhaps the best view of the initial collision.
The Haas driver took a rather diplomatic stance in his own comments to F1.com.
“Disappointed… Gutted, to be honest,” he explained to the media after his race ended.. “To be out after 500 [meters] is obviously far from ideal – also both [Haas] cars out.
“I got taken out by an incident that I wasn’t directly involved in, but obviously it’s quite narrow here, going up to Turn 3. A big shame, things were getting too tight there. I think somewhat a racing incident … It looked maybe a bit optimistic from Kevin, but I don’t know, [Pérez] could have also maybe seen him and left room, so unfortunate, obviously, the outcome.”
Perhaps adding to the confusion was the fact that while this incident was waved off by race officials, a collision between teammates Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon on the opening lap saw Ocon penalized.
Will Buxton was one of many questioning the different decisions:
Don’t really understand how there was no investigation into Perez/Hulk/Mag but Ocon gets a five place drop. Either first laps have leniency or they don’t. Bit weird.
— Will Buxton (@wbuxtonofficial) May 26, 2024
You can be sure we have not heard the last of it regarding these two incidents.
