Sergio Perez felt the Sahara Force India F1 Team should have taken a lot of points away from the Belgian Grand Prix but two clashes with team-mate Esteban Ocon ruined that opportunity.
The Mexican first hit Ocon on the opening lap, which he took full responsibility for as he did not know the Frenchman was there as he battled with Nico Hülkenberg, but Perez feels the second clash was less clear cut, but it was more damaging to the team as it left both cars with damage.
Perez continued on until a few laps from the end before withdrawing from the race with the damage to his car too much for him to overcome and break back into the points.
“I am very disappointed with how the race went, especially because this was a track on which we should have scored a lot of points,” said Perez. “Two clashes with Esteban unfortunately took away our chances and ruined the race for the team.
“I apologise for the incident at the start, which was totally my fault. I didn’t select the start mode and I was down on power going down the hill. I was battling with Nico [Hulkenberg] and I thought I had a good margin on all the others. I moved to the right without checking my mirrors and didn’t see Esteban was there.
“In the second case, I think he was a bit too optimistic because there was just no room to make a move. I was covering my line and I expected him to attack after Eau Rouge – he had the whole straight to overtake me. I think we both misjudged the situation and we ruined the race for the team.
“After that, my car was too damaged to drive. It was a very particular situation and we have to review the incident. There’s very little to say, it was not my best race today. We need to talk about what happened and then move forward as a team to avoid losing more points.”
