For Sergio Perez, the 2023 Formula 1 Mexican Grand Prix was a heartbreaking weekend. After crashing into Charles Leclerc on the first corner of the opening lap, the Red Bull driver was forced to retire from the race owing to car damage. The spectacular sequence of events began as Perez, Checo, and Max Verstappen entered the first turn together.
Perez was cheered on by his enthusiastic home audience the entire time he was on the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez track. While Perez was pleased with his hourly performance overall during the qualifying sessions—he came in fifth place—he couldn't help but feel that he could have done better.
During the Sunday race, Perez, who had started in fifth place, took a risky lane change as he neared the first turn of the track in an attempt to make up ground quickly. He got in front of pole sitter Leclerc from the outside, while Verstappen was pressing him from the inside. Unfortunately, Perez touched with Leclerc's Ferrari's front-left wheel as he started the turn to the right. Perez's car was thrown off the track as it was briefly launched onto all three wheels by the impact. Although he made it back to the pit lane, his car was severely damaged and had to be retired immediately by Red Bull.
F1 Mexican Grand Prix: Here’s What Sergio Perez said Regarding his Crash
In the post-race Interview, the Mexican said: "To be honest, I really feel it was a racing incident. The gap was there and obviously, as a driver you take a risk, going three cars into Turn 1 with these wide cars. I took a risk. I paid a high price for it, but I was also honestly not expecting Charles to break that late, as he was in the middle so he had a bit less room for manoeuvring. I was ahead of him, I thought he was going to bail out a bit more but, obviously, in those decisions, everything happens really late and, yeah, it just happened everything a little bit too late and unfortunately I had a lot of damage on my car."
After a weekend of enthusiastic fan support, Perez's disappointing DNF capped a year that saw both highs and lows. Because of this, Lewis Hamilton is currently only 20 points behind race leader Sergio Perez in the drivers' standings, good enough for second place.
"I’m second in the championship, there are still three races to go, and I tried to go for the win at my home Grand Prix. I mean, what else could I have done? I saw the gap, I went for it. I risked it too much, but I wanted the win today," he added.
F1 Mexican Grand Prix: Locan Fan Boos Charles Leclerc
Charles Leclerc was put in a difficult position on Sunday after the Mexico City Grand Prix when he was met with a wave of boos from the local crowd. Fans in the stadium section voiced their unhappiness about Leclerc's third-place finish and Max Verstappen's victory. A fan was banned for life after attacking two Ferrari fans in the Soro Fol sector of the stadium, adding to the tension in the hours after the race.
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Leclerc's front wing end plate detached after he was hit, but he continued the race anyhow. The race officials looked into whether or not the driver had been reckless. In the end, they decided to do nothing further. Leclerc stayed in second place following the incident, but he was passed by Lewis Hamilton and dropped to third when a major crash involving Kevin Magnussen forced a red flag at the halfway point.
“First of all, obviously it is a really big shame it happened with Checo at his home race,” Leclerc said. “On the other hand, looking back at the images I had nowhere to go. We all brake at the same point, and then I was trying to stay on the right as close as possible to Max, but Checo I think didn’t know that Max was there, started to turn in and then we collided."
Despite the unexpected podium finish, Leclerc voiced his disappointment that he had been unable to convert any of his four pole positions this season into victory.
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