Sergio Perez explains reasons behind his Qatar GP spin as promising start ended in retirement

Sergio Perez’s woes continued in Qatar with the Red Bull driver failing to see the chequered flag for the fourth time this season. It was an unfortunate end to what had seemed a more promising Grand Prix, with the Mexican having qualified in the top 10.

His P9 grid slot turned into seventh as he picked up places off the line, and Perez looked on for a decent haul of points when he pitted under the second Safety Car and emerged back into the top 10.

But as his hard tyres cooled down behind the Safety Car, he spun off at the restart by himself. Perez immediately radioed to say he had “lost drive” and was forced to retire from the race.

“As I was warming up the tyre, I had a massive over delivery from the engine, and on cold tyres I couldn’t control the car and I ended up losing drive from that point on,” was his explanation for the incident.

LUSAIL CITY, QATAR - DECEMBER 01: Sergio Perez of Mexico driving the (11) Oracle Red Bull Racing — Perez looked on for points until his mid-race spin on Sunday

The better news was that the stewards took no further action after pinging the Mexican for ‘dangerous driving’ after he appeared to drive across the track in an attempt to recover the car after that spin.

Their verdict cited that: “The evidence tabled showed that the driver attempted to do a rapid 90 degree clockwise spin but in doing so, experienced clutch failure which resulted in the car travelling across the track.

“Whilst this appeared potentially dangerous from the video, the attempted move by the driver was possible to execute under normal circumstances and only the failure of the clutch caused the reported incident.”

Perez’s weekend might have ended in a DNF, but the suspension changes made to his car before the Sprint – which resulted in a pit lane start on Saturday – proved instrumental in Red Bull turning their weekend around. That ‘test session’ proved valuable learning for the team, with the resultant set-up changes to Max Verstappen’s car contributing to the Dutchman winning the Grand Prix.

“I think we managed to find some good direction with the car, and hopefully we can confirm all of that going into Abu Dhabi and have a strong weekend,” concluded Perez.