FIA issue verdict following Carlos Sainz and Sergio Perez Baku incident investigation

The FIA stewards in Azerbaijan have reached a decision after investigating Carlos Sainz and Sergio Perez over alleged blocking during practice.

Both Sergio Perez and Carlos Sainz were summoned to see the stewards in Baku after the pair had tripped up over each other during second practice.

Carlos Sainz given a warning by the FIA stewards

Approaching the high-speed Turn 14, Perez was on a flying lap when he encountered Carlos Sainz as the Ferrari driver suddenly slowed doing through the flat-out corner.

Perez took avoiding action to dive to the right and avoid the Ferrari, taking to the team radio to exclaim, “What is he doing?! That was very close!”

Following a short investigation and having met with the Red Bull and Ferrari drivers, the FIA stewards decided to give Sainz a warning for the incident – a warning has no further impact on the remainder of the Grand Prix weekend.

Explaining the incident, the stewards confirmed they had met with Sainz and Perez, team representatives, and reviewed all relevant data from the marshaling system, video, and telemetry.

“Impeding in free practice is not normally investigated by the Stewards unless it is considered dangerous,” read the stewards’ verdict.

“This was investigated because the driver of Car 11, Perez, had to lift and move to the right at a high-speed section of the track and could have been potentially dangerous.

“In the hearing, the driver of Car 55, Sainz, admitted that he had seen Perez behind him, and the Stewards noted that his team did warn him, but because he was distracted by a variety of alarms on the car, he misjudged the closing speed.

“The Stewards noted that he did start to avoid the car behind, but fractionally late. Perez stated that while he did have to lift, he had good visibility of the incident throughout and that it did not end up being particularly dangerous.

Therefore, the Stewards issue a Warning to Sainz in accordance with the agreed guidelines.”

Sainz finished second practice in fourth place, just under half a second from the top time set by teammate Charles Leclerc. Perez was second-quickest in what was a brighter showing for Red Bull, finishing 0.006 behind Leclerc as the lead Red Bull driver.

“Challenging Friday with very little grip and lots of track evolution,” Sainz said after the day’s end.

“The circuit was slower than last year and it was tricky to read the car balance, but we made progress and I’m confident we can improve even further for tomorrow.”

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