Baku ‘war zone’ after Perez-Sainz crash sparks confusion over FIA Safety Car call

Nico Hulkenberg described the scene of the crash between Carlos Sainz and Sergio Perez as a “war zone” on Sunday, leading to surprise at there not being a Safety Car.

The FIA opted to end the race under Virtual Safety Car conditions, with the two remaining laps neutralised as the drivers went around the Baku City Circuit at a set speed, with both Perez and Sainz having walked away unscathed.

Nico Hulkenberg ‘surprised’ at lack of Safety Car in ‘war zone’ crash verdict

That moment of contact between the Red Bull and Ferrari drivers was the climax to an enthralling race on Sunday, with Sainz having slipped by Perez after the Mexican ran off line while challenging the sister Ferrari of Charles Leclerc.

Sainz went wide at the next corner, Turn 2, which allowed the rear of his car alongside Sainz’s Ferrari, but with the Spanish driver adjudged to have taken his normal racing line and Perez alongside while he moved to the left, the pair collided and careered into the wall at high speed.

The FIA eventually found the moment to be a racing incident, but multiple drivers since saw concerns at a full Safety Car not having been deployed – though the collision took place at a late stage of the race.

For Haas driver Hulkenberg, he ended up losing out when the race got back into green flag conditions at the end once every car had passed the incident on the final lap, being jumped by Lewis Hamilton and one-off team-mate Ollie Bearman at the restart, which led to a “very surreal” experience for him.

“It went completely the wrong way,” Hulkenberg said of the end of his race on Sunday.

“I kind of lost the position. A few things happened, don’t want to go into detail now. I need to process it and look on the replays and [see] exactly what the team go through.

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“Obviously, the incident also, I mean, massive crash, massive war zone, debris everywhere. I was surprised it was a double yellow, and then it was back to green, which confused me, and I got caught off guard there and lost positions.

“So, very surreal last two laps, unfortunately, we came out on the wrong side of it.

“I hit something quite big and substantial. I wasn’t sure where my front wing was, I had a quite big hit on the front. Yeah, very confusing.”

When asked if a red flag or full Safety Car would have been a better solution, Hulkenberg added: “Yeah, to be honest, that was my initial [thought] when I went by, I was like, ‘whoa’.

“You know, how can we still race when there’s two cars in a high-speed area with so much debris everywhere?

“So I’m surprised, usually they’re very fast, Neils [Wittich, race director, ed.] with that reaction, but today it was more kind of the opposite. So, a bit unusual.”

Red Bull driver Max Verstappen agreed that a stronger step from the FIA would have been a better course of action to neutralise the race, with debris strewn across the track and two cars in the wall.

“Straight away, a Safety Car. Yeah, I don’t get it,” Verstappen said.

“I mean, there are two cars flat out in the wall. I don’t understand why it needs to take so long.

“Double yellow [flags], why double just for the Safety Car? You know, there’s nothing going to happen.

“The track is completely blocked with dirt everywhere, damage. Why Virtual Safety [Car]? Just put a Safety Car out.”

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