Perez apologised for Sepang collision – Grosjean

2015 Malaysian Grand Prix

Posted on

| Written by

Romain Grosjean revealed Sergio Perez apologised to him following their collision in the Malaysian Grand Prix.

The pair tangled in turn 12 as the Lotus driver was trying to overtake the Force India.

“I think to be fair I wasn’t really happy with Sergio during the race,” said Grosjean during a press conference today.

“It was a good move on the outside of a high-speed corner. You know we take risks and they can end up the way it ended up.

“Sergio came to see me and just apologised, he had no more tyres at that point in the race and just went a bit wide.”

Perez was given a time penalty and a license endorsement for the collision. Grosjean said drivers must be careful to avoid similar incidents: “I think we just need to be careful in high-speed corners not to get wheels in between other wheels.”

Perez’s team mate Nico Hulkenberg was also penalised in Malaysia after colliding with Daniil Kvyat. Hulkenberg said he felt his penalty was “maybe a bit harsh”.

“I spoke Dany after the race, he just didn’t expect me to dive back in and he didn’t see me as well,” he said. “I still tried to pull out of it but it was too late, we touched.”

2015 Malaysian Grand Prix

    Browse all 2015 Malaysian Grand Prix articles

    Author information

    Keith Collantine
    Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

    Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

    25 comments on “Perez apologised for Sepang collision – Grosjean”

    1. I still think that a penalty was not needed here. Fair play to Sergio for apologising for something I believe wasn’t even his fault unless Grosjean really just expected Perez to let him by. Grosjean was always going to run out of road as the racing line goes that close to the kerb…

      Penalty for Hülkenberg is just complete nonsense if you ask me.

      1. @xtwl so Grosjean is expected to vanish? He had the line and place considering that Perez’s front wheel hit Grosjean’s rear wheel to put him into a spin.

        He might have taken the same line the previous lap but Grosjean was there in this lap and corrections were required. Fair penalty and props to Perez for apologizing as well.

        1. it was a racing incident. If the keep giving penalties out like this then we will go back to early 2000’s when no one could or even dared to overtake.

          No penalty was required here. They both were penalised enough by crashing into each other which they both played a part in causing…. because they were racing!

          Give drivers chewing gum tyres and this sort of thing can happen :)

          1. Grosjean lost out. Perez ‘gained’ a place.

          2. The overtaking car wasn’t penalised, so how would this discourage overtaking in the future?

        2. As q85 points out, its not about Grosjean (or Perez for that matter really) not having had a right to be there, or to make a move. Rather exactly because it was the ones right to be there, and the other really just did not manage to avoid the accident, that no penalty should be given for this. At all.

      2. Perez deserved that penalty. He (and you) could learn from Verstappen and Ricciardo how to act during an overtake in that corner. They went through the exact same thing and both came out fine on the other end. No troubles of “always going to run out of road” at all.

        1. @patrickl I guess my 7-8 years of online league racing don’t count when judging an overtake then…

          Perez entered the corner on the racing line with Grosjean on his outside. The corner was Perez to take and Grosjean was always going to rely on Perez lifting which he didn’t have to do as the corner was his. Grosjean chose to be a hero on someone with older tyres and expected Perez to let him by.

          1. @patrickl I agree, and Perez apologizing to Grosjean says everything.

          2. Nope,they do not matter at all.

    2. I love it when they’re generous enough to apologise. Gotta say @xtwl I agree with Martin Donnelly (Sky F1 Show) that Perez could easily have tightened his line with a lift, and Hulk should have done what they generally expect and ceded the corner having so little overlap. They were contacts that wouldn’t have happened with a top driver, and disadvantaged the innocent. Anyway fair play to Checo as you say, to apologise.

      1. I agree with Martin Donnelly (Sky F1 Show) that Perez could easily have tightened his line with a lift.

        @lockup – The point is not whether he could, the point is whether he had to. Both Hülkenberg and Perez could have avoided the collisions for sure, they could have also stayed in the pits at the start. But Hülkenberg had plenty in front to claim the corner. And for me Perez went into the corner on the racing line and you cannot expect people to go off it just becuase another car wants to pass. Especially Perez/Grosjean-crash is harder to judge but a penalty was not needed in my opinion, and DCs opinion by the way. Hülkenbergs penalty too was just nonsense as Kvyat didn’t even leave room, he just went middle from the track to apex whilst Hülkenberg was always there.

        1. Well for me @xtwl the convention is if you’re ahead on the outside you get given room. If Checo chose to tap Grosjean’s rear wheel with his front then he’s guilty afaic. On Verstappen it was closer but still the fact it spun his car shows Hulk wasn’t far enough alongside. Drivers normally give way in those situations, but we don’t notice.

          1. I don’t think Perez chose to touch Grosjean. It was a unfortunate racing incident where for me Grosjean took unneeded risk.

            On Verstappen it was closer but still the fact it spun his car shows Hulk wasn’t far enough alongside.

            It was Kvyat who spun. And Hülkenberg was alongside enough to get the corner. If he wasn’t enough alongside him Kvyat would not have spun. In the end Kvyat could have left more room easily and taken the position considering Hülkenberg had never gotten a good exit anyway.

            1. Oh Kvyat yes @xtwl. Still IMO Nando/Seb/Lewis etc would have ceded the corner not having enough overlap. If the contact had been further forward it wouldn’t have spun him. If Checo chose not to lift he chose to have the contact, that’s what Donnelly said. Didn’t like being done round the outside…

            2. @lockup I also don’t think any of those would attempt such a silly move on someone with that much older tyres.

        2. @xtwl you are wrong. Yes you don’t have to give up the racing line if you are ahead of the other driver. Grosjean was ahead of Sergio when contact was made, it was Sergio’s responsibility to back off to avoid contact.

      2. @lockup Agreed, matches with what I thought at the time and Donnelly is correct. @xtwl For Perez remember that you now also ‘always have to leave a space’.

        1. @fastiesty

          always have to leave a space

          On a straight and in a heavy braking zone. That is what the rules say.

          1. @xtwl Fair enough, but by that reckoning Grosjean was fully alongside on corner entry, so Perez wasn’t on the racing line and chopping across on exit would be a bad move, especially if he was still alongside. PS. What do you drive online?

    3. Maldonado take note. Perez might be quite accident prone but at least he seems to be man enough to do the right thing.

      1. “Bu-bu-but, it’s always not my fault!”

    4. They’re not a bunch of kids, after all… some of them can man-up and apologise for mistakes, even if we’re talking about motoracing and accidents obvisously can happen.
      I would consider this as a race incident but the penalty of that maneuvre (for GRO) was to harsh, so I guess it is fair that PER gets some penalty too. In the end it was fair.

    5. Someone said once that “he should be punched in the face”?

    6. Grosjean had the corner by virtue of being in front at the time the contact occurred. He was also on the inside for the corner following. He kept within track limits. Perez caused an accident by (bit of a leap here) not avoiding one. Grosjean couldn’t avoid the accident except by not making the move. Perez could have avoided the accident with a good lift. The penalty shouldn’t discourage overtaking because the overtaking car wasn’t penalised (except by the collision itself).

    Comments are closed.