Christian Horner puzzled by stewards, jumps to Sergio Perez’s defence

Sergio Pérez claimed his second victory of the 2022 season at the Singapore Grand Prix, after a controlled performance.

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has hit out at the stewards and race director Eduardo Freitas, as he believes Sergio Pérez was wrongly investigated after the Singapore Grand Prix.

The Mexican driver made an excellent start at the Marina Bay Circuit from second place and overtook polesitter Charles Leclerc on the way down to Turn One.

From that moment on the 32-year-old appeared untroubled, on his way to becoming just the second driver to win both the Singapore and Monaco Grand Prix in the same season.

The last person to do so was Sebastian Vettel in 2011, whilst the four-time World Champion drove for Red Bull.

READ: Lando Norris makes big Singapore GP claim, admits he got lucky

Pérez is certainly a master of taming street circuits, given that 75 percent of his F1 victories have come at street circuits.

Leclerc did at times get close to being in a position to potentially think about an overtake for the race lead but thought against it due to the damp conditions.

The Mexican ended up winning the race by just over seven seconds; however, he technically won by just two seconds after being awarded a five-second time penalty after the race.

The Red Bull driver was investigated after the race for falling too far behind the Safety Car on multiple occasions, something he was deemed guilty of doing three times.

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On three occasions he fell beyond 10 car lengths behind the Safety Car and was therefore awarded a five-second time penalty and two points onto his superlicence.

Horner personally doesn’t understand why his driver was investigated after the race, where a decision was finally announced two hours after the race had finished.

The Red Bull boss deemed that the Pérez investigation was a “non-issue”.

“The Safety Car could have been a real stumbling block but how many times have we had to deal with a Safety Car lap and how many precedents are there?” he said.

“For us, this time, it really was a non-issue. The stewards took their time with it, but they reached the right decision. It would have been a incredible shame to have taken that victory away from Checo.”

The victory comes on the back of a challenging period for the Mexican, who has struggled as of late.

Prior to Singapore, Pérez had claimed just two podiums from the last eight races; however, his victory means he’s just two points behind Leclerc in the fight for second in the Drivers’ Championship.

READ: Did Lewis Hamilton prove Fernando Alonso right at Singapore?

Horner labelled Pérez’s performance as “world class” and ranks the performance as his “best” yet.

“It was a massive result for him and we are super-proud of him,” he said.

“That was world class from Checo,” he added, “it is right up there as one of his best drives. He was always fighting and even though he had a lot thrown his way he managed to stay on top.”