Unheard radio: Perez’s surprising reaction to Sainz crashing into him

Sergio Perez and Carlos Sainz collided at the end of qualifying for the Monaco Grand Prix, bringing out the red flag.

An amusing team radio message has surfaced from Sergio Perez after his crash during qualifying at the Monaco Grand Prix.

Perez had generally been quicker all weekend than team-mate Max Verstappen in Monaco, and he had set a quicker lap than the Dutchman to go third fastest after the opening run in the third and final qualifying session, with Verstappen in P4.

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was in P1 ahead of team-mate Carlos Sainz, and the Monegasque was set to go even quicker in his final attempt in what had been a dominant qualifying performance.

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However, Verstappen was also going quicker, and his first sector was completed at blistering pace, to the extent that he might even have been able to snatch a spot on the front row behind Leclerc had he been able to finish the lap.

As Perez approach the second Portier corner though, he lost the back end of his Red Bull and went into the barrier.

With barriers and walls everywhere, near enough every corner in Monaco is blind so Sainz, unsighted as to what had just happened in front of him, had no time to react to Perez’s incident, and span into the Mexican.

This, as well as a crash at Mirabeau for Fernando Alonso, brought out the red flag and, as it turns out, Perez was on the radio when the secondary impact took place.

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“I’m out then, sorry,” said the Red Bull driver before producing a surprised grunt as Sainz collided with him.

He then continued apologising on the radio, as if nothing had happened.

Perez went on to win the race in changing conditions after a brilliant strategy from his team, coupled with a series of calamitous errors by Ferrari, saw him jump both Sainz and Leclerc in the pit stops.

Sainz ended the race in P2, with Leclerc down in fourth behind Verstappen having started on pole.

Red Bull would later announce that the 32-year-old has a new contract that keeps him at the Milton Keynes-based side until at least the end of 2024, and he finished second behind Verstappen in Baku last weekend as the Austrian outfit claimed their third one-two of the season.