Perez plays victim but could have avoided his crash
General
- Ludo van Denderen
Kevin Magnussen and Sergio Perez had barely returned to the paddock, or the finger-pointing had already begun. According to Magnussen, the huge crash on the first lap of the Monaco Grand Prix was Perez's fault, while the latter blamed the Haas F1 driver entirely. Who was most to blame? That's a tricky one. But there is someone who could have tried harder to avoid the crash: Sergio Perez.
Perez was furious. The Mexican spoke abou Magnussen's "dangerous" driving and that he was "not really thinking". Yet anyone who carefully studies the footage of the incident must come to the conclusion that Perez himself was not off the hook either. Indeed Magnussen was never fully alongside the Mexican and it is enormously tight on that stretch of the track. But Perez could easily have avoided this accident himself.
Before the Red Bull Racing and Haas drivers collided with each other, Perez looked no less than three times in the mirrors. The Mexican should have known Magnussen would never be able to pass him, so he could have kept a little more to the left of the track and eventually the speed difference would have kept him ahead. In reality, Perez didn't go a few centimetres to the left, but kept driving too much to the right (was there even a small turn to the right with his steering wheel to be seen?), which put Perez at risk of both cars colliding.
Perez should have known better
Kevin Magnussen is an unguided missile, it is common knowledge. Sergio Perez, currently the reigning sub-world champion, should have known that too. As such, the chances of a crash with him around are just a little higher than when say Valtteri Bottas or Nico Hulkenberg is on your tail. So with all his experience, Perez should have taken the safe option. Instead, he made a decision that turned a bad weekend into complete drama.
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