FIA announces verdict after Carlos Sainz and Sergio Perez incident in Baku

The FIA ​​​​commissioners in Azerbaijan have made a decision following the investigation of Carlos Sainz and Sergio Perez for alleged blocking during practice.

Both Sergio Perez and Carlos Sainz were summoned to the race stewards in Baku after the two stumbled over each other during the second practice session.

Carlos Sainz receives warning from the FIA ​​commissioners

Before the high-speed Turn 14, Perez was on a flying lap when he encountered Carlos Sainz, who suddenly slowed down in the full-throttle corner.

Perez swerved to the right to avoid the Ferrari and shouted over the team radio: “What is he doing?! That was a close call!”

After a brief investigation and a meeting with the Red Bull and Ferrari drivers, the FIA ​​race stewards decided to issue Sainz a warning for the incident – a warning has no further impact on the rest of the Grand Prix weekend.

To explain the incident, the race stewards confirmed that they had met with team representatives Sainz and Perez and reviewed all relevant data from the marshal system, videos and telemetry.

“An obstruction of free practice will not normally be investigated by the stewards unless it is considered dangerous,” the stewards’ decision states.

“This was investigated because the driver of car 11, Perez, had to lift off and swerve to the right at a high-speed section of the track, which could have been dangerous.

“During the hearing, the driver of car 55, Sainz, admitted that he had seen Perez behind him and Race Control found that although his team had warned him, he had misjudged the approach speed due to various alarms on the car.

“The race director noted that he did start to avoid the car behind him, but only slightly too late. Perez explained that although he had to get out, he had a good view of the incident the whole time and that in the end he was not particularly dangerous.

Therefore, the race stewards are issuing a warning to Sainz in accordance with the agreed guidelines.”

Sainz finished the second practice session in fourth place, just under half a second behind his teammate Charles Leclerc's best time. Perez was second fastest and finished the session 0.006 seconds behind Leclerc as the best Red Bull driver.

“A challenging Friday with very little grip and a lot of track changes,” said Sainz at the end of the day.

“The track was slower than last year and it was difficult to judge the car balance, but we have made progress and I am confident we can improve even further for tomorrow.”

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