Force India drivers Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez have both apologised to their team after crashing out of Sunday’s Hungarian Grand Prix. Hulkenberg brought his 100% scoring record to an end when he tagged the back of his teammate, sending him ploughing into the wall at the final corner, and admitted the Perez’s mistake a lap earlier had enticed him into the move.
“It was not the best day in the office and I’m feeling very disappointed. The track was drying out and I was quite close behind Checo when I made contact with him at the final corner. The previous lap he had taken a much wider line so I tried to overtake on the inside, but he took a tighter line and I couldn’t back out of the move. I made contact with his car, lost my front wing and went straight on into the barrier. It was my mistake and I’ve apologised to the team. It’s especially frustrating because there was a lot of potential in this race, but I guess it was one of those days when things didn’t go our way.”
Perez continued despite the contact but he would only survive for another eight laps before losing control spectacularly out of the last corner and slamming into the pitwall. Perez held his hands up afterwards, adding that he felt he surrendered a potentially large haul of points.
“It’s a very disappointing end to our weekend, just when it looked like we could have scored some big points. I went a little wide on the exit kerb of the final corner, lost the rear and that was it – I was in the wall. It was a very unfortunate end to our race and I feel sorry for the team because they deserved some points today. Conditions were very difficult, the track was drying and improving, and it made you want to push to the limit, but there were some wet patches that could catch you out. We’ll take the positive elements of this weekend and get back in the points in the next race.”
