2024 Race 17 Azerbaijan

[Nitrodaze]

All commentators seem to blame Sainz but I've to disagree. It was unrealistic of Perez to expect that Sainz would drive close to the wall the entire way up the straight. He could have pulled over to the left and still made the move stick, the squeeze was completely unnecessary. Plus Sainz was ahead so he is entitled to take the racing line. A bit of intelligence from Perez and he could have had 3rd position, possibly 2nd. He did the same in Monaco, okay a little but greyer there, and paid the price then as well.

If you get a chance to watch the overhead shot of that part of the race, you see that Perez gave Sainz a full car's width within the white line. Sainz drifted into Perez chasing after the slipstream from Ferrari ahead which was in front of him for a short while. But when Leclerc moved into the middle of the track, the slipstream shifted from Sainz to Perez. I think Sainz was trying to stay in the slipstream and moved sideways into Perez who was now in the slipstream and was not going to give it up.

Perez was blameless in that crash. The stewards have called it a racing incident. But l think Sainz got away with it.