Checo Pérez was penalized for an illegal maneuver during the Safety Car period
The Mexican, Sergio Checo Pérez, was penalized with 10 seconds due to the incident that the Red Bull driver experienced during the first laps of The Grand Prize of Emilia Romagna, when the Safety Car was on the track.
Due to an accident with Williams of the Canadian Nicholas Latifi, the organization had to remove the safety car to clean the track from the Autodromo Internazional Enzo e Dino Ferrari, which is complicated by rain. Then, during the safety car, Mick Schumacher crashed the Haas F1 and lost the front wing, further prolonging the safety car’s time.
Checo Pérez was under pressure at the time fRent two pilots; then the Mexican returned to the track and passed them again. The rule states that You cannot pass cars during the Safety Car period, unless the problem of passing the car is obvious – just like Checo’s problem and for which the others were not sanctioned.
Commissioners announced the investigation a few laps after the incident and it was moments later that they signaled the 10-second penalty for Pérez.
Checo Pérez executed the sanction during his stop, where he changed the intermediate rain tires for medium slicks and changed the steering wheel of his car.
Checo Pérez started from the second position at Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari, but at the beginning he lost the position in front of his teammate Max Verstappen and later a mistake of his made him lose the third place in front of Charles Leclerc.
Pérez complained on the radio that the RB16B was spinning alone; he lost a lot of time against the first three, which he simply could not follow in the first laps of the competition, but gradually took the time against Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari, the third at the time.
The race is still developing …