Sergio Perez has revealed that he “saw nothing” when drivers resumed racing after a second red flag, potentially explaining the chaotic incident at turn one.
When the lights went green, Carlos Sainz collided with Fernando Alonso, Logan Sargeant hit Nyck de Vries and Pierre Gasly crashed into his teammate Esteban Ocon.
The Mexican driver said he warned that the grid faced “dangerous conditions” prior to the restart due to the low light situation in Melbourne.
“First of all, we already had trouble warming up the tyres and then we saw nothing,” Perez told Nu.ul.
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“We shouldn’t be driving in these conditions any more. You really can’t see anything.
“Soon there will be a really big accident. You are actually a passenger in the car,” he added.
Perez managed to finish the race, despite the chaos, in fifth place after starting from the pit lane in P20.
The Mexican’s strong end to the grand prix came after his weekend had been plagued by reliability issues, having crashed out of qualifying into the gravel trap with a braking issues.
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“It was a good result, but I should have been a little more aggressive in the beginning. I ended up in a train, which was very frustrating,” Perez explained after qualifying
“That could have ended in tears, but it ended well. I even drove the fastest lap.”
After a strong start to the season put Perez close behind his teammate Max Verstappen in the Drivers’ Standing, the Mexican is now 15 points behind the world champion, as the grid heads to Baku for the next round.