“It is very disappointing” – Carlos Sainz and Sergio Perez comment on the dramatic accident at the end of the race in Baku

“We have already spoken,” added Sainz. “[But] we have to analyse. I'm not someone who wants to blame either an excuse or another driver. It's racing, everything happens super fast.

“My feeling today is that I honestly didn't do anything wrong, I didn't do any erratic maneuvers, I didn't push him against the wall or anything like that. We just drifted a little bit, like every other lap, a tiny bit to the left, because that's where the racing line is and we just touched it. It is what it is.”

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Perez reacted angrily on team radio after the incident, calling Sainz “an idiot”. But the Mexican was more measured when he entered the media area. He had spoken to race stewards after both drivers were asked to explain their involvement in the accident – which forced a virtual safety car and secured McLaren's Oscar Piastri his second career victory as he outpaced Charles Leclerc's sister Ferrari.

“I felt there was a lot of space between the two cars coming out of Turn 2 and after a meter or two we touched,” said Perez, before race control decided no further action was needed. “It's very unfortunate. It all happened so quickly. I think Carlos was trying to follow the slipstream of Charles when he went inside and that made things really very difficult.”