F1 News

Danner: 'Surprising that Perez makes the same mistake twice'

6 October 2022 at 21:50
Last update 7 October 2022 at 03:16
  • GPblog.com

Sergio Perez was lucky his victory was not taken away in Singapore. The Mexican committed the same offence several times, even after the stewards had already warned him. Christian Danner believes the FIA was very lenient.

It was briefly tense whether Perez was the actual winner of the Singapore Grand Prix, but the Mexican ended up getting only a five-second penalty from the FIA. In the closing stages of the race, Perez had made sure he was more than five seconds ahead of Charles Leclerc so that he would retain the win in the event of a possible infringement. It turned out to be a good strategy.

In addition to a time penalty, Perez also received a warning and two penalty points on his licence. The FIA could also have given the Red Bull Racing driver two time penalties for failing to stay within 10 car lengths of the safety car on two occasions.

Danner: 'Stewards were very lenient'

Formula 1 expert Danner is quoted by Speedweek.com: "You don't care what happens at the back - the more chaos, the better. That is exactly what this rule is against. It is therefore surprising that he makes the same mistake twice, when he has already been warned."

"He managed to talk his way out of it the first time. He said on the radio that visibility was so bad. The stewards were very lenient. The second time they had to give a penalty. The five seconds is actually the mildest penalty there is", Danner concludes.