Leclerc Defends Perez Over Disastrous First Lap Incident At Mexico City Grand Prix

Monday, 30 October 2023 at 22:00

Scuderia Ferrari F1 driver Charles Leclerc reflected on the first-lap incident with Red Bull's Sergio Perez at the 2023 Mexico City Grand Prix at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.

Sergio Perez saw the worst possible end to the Grand Prix, which he named the most important of this season ahead of the start. The Mexican driver had to retire after a collision with Charles Leclerc in the first corner.

Perez's teammate Max Verstappen mentioned after looking at the footage of the incident that Perez should have left more space on the inside where Leclerc was going.

When presented with Perez's claim, saying the collision was simply a racing incident, Leclerc responded to the media by agreeing with the Mexican driver.

"I think exactly the same, I mean I had nowhere to go. I tried to stay on the right as much as possible, as close as I could to Max. But unfortunately, there was no space anymore for me to be any more to the right."

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While the Monegasque driver defended himself, saying he "had nowhere to go," he also suggested an excuse for Perez, saying he didn't know the Red Bull driver was aware they were going three-wide into the corner.

"I don't think Checo was aware that I had Max on my right and started to turn in, and when I saw that, I knew that we would collide at one point, which we did. After that, I was extremely surprised that I could finish the race."

Leclerc mentioned he thought he was done with the race when he realized he was going to collide with Perez, but fortunately for him, the incident did not have as much effect on his Ferrari.

"When I saw Checo with his rear wheel touching my front wheel, I was like: 'Okay, that's done for me. Then I did two, three corners and it didn't feel too bad."

The 26-year-old managed to keep his pace even with the left plate on his front wing broken and finished the race in P3 after second Lewis Hamilton and the winner of the race - Max Verstappen.

"Obviously, all was not great but it was not too bad and I could finish the race. On the radio, they told me that we were lacking, I think, 10 or 15 points [of downforce], but to be honest, I managed to drive around it and it didn't feel too bad, so that was positive."