Perez Another Victim Of Loose Drain Cover Ahead Of Turn 11, Triggers Red Flag

The morning session of the last day of testing in Bahrain was red-flagged after Sergio Perez unlodged the drain cover on the curb ahead of turn number 11.

The drain cover on the curb ahead of turn number 11 was not unlodged for the first time by Sergio Perez today. It was the reason why Thursday's morning session ended an hour earlier.

Charles Leclerc's Ferrari first unlodged it on Thursday. Two drivers who then fell victim to it were Lewis Hamilton, who ran over it first, and then Leclerc himself, who ran over it for the second time before the session was red-flagged.

However, it was already a bit too late for the Ferrari driver, who damaged his floor by running over the loose drain cover. Following the incident, Ferrari put out a statement saying the floor needed to be changed before the evening session.

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The loose drain cover was then fixed, and the evening session went smoothly. But today (Friday, 23rd), there seems to be another drain cover on the same curb ahead of turn 11 that caused problems.

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🟥 RED FLAG: Another drain cover has come loose in the exact same turn as yesterday 😬

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Twenty-seven minutes into the session, Sergio Perez, with his RB20, went over the drain cover and unlodged it. He then had to pull into the pits as it wasn't clear whether he damaged his floor.

His crew, including the chief technical officer Adrian Newey, then had to check the floor from below, as you can see in the image below.

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Adrian Newey checking the RB20’s floor, hope there’s no damage🙏🏻 [📸 | @racefansdotnet] #F1 #F1Testing

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This kind of incident isn't new to F1. It caused huge controversy last year, during the first edition of the Las Vegas Grand Prix. Back then, it was Carlos Sainz who fell victim to a loose drain cover.

Consequently, the Ferrari driver had to change both his floor and power unit because they were damaged due to the incident. Can F1 track organizers somehow learn from these incidents?

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