Sergio Perez’s hopes of a return to form at his home race were ended by a collision with Charles Leclerc at Turn 1 in Mexico City.
Perez and Red Bull teammate Max Verstappen both had a lightning getaway at the start at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez and found themselves either side of Leclerc, who had been on pole position, coming to Turn 1.
With Verstappen on the inside, Leclerc had nowhere to go to avoid Perez as the Mexican driver turned right to make the corner.
The collision briefly sent Perez’s car airborne before it was spun around, briefly coming to a stop in the run-off area.
Perez refused to blame Leclerc, saying he went aggressive at the start as he saw a chance to take the lead.
“I took a risk to exit that corner first and go for the victory,” Perez told the media after retiring from the event.
“It hurts me a lot for the people. I gave it my all. I wanted to give them the victory”.
Asked if he could have given Leclerc more space, he said: “Definitely yes. But I was not expecting Charles to brake that late, because I was already ahead of him and he was in the middle, so there’s a lot less room for maneovuer. So once you’re committed to the braking zone at those speeds, it’s just too late.
“Obviously there is always, with these wide cars, three cars into Turn 1, it’s not going to end up well. But if you decide to take a risk, I decided to take it, and I paid the price.”
Perez was able to drag his damaged car back to the pits, but after Red Bull’s mechanics had attempted to make repairs, he climbed out of the car to officially retire from the race.
The Mexican driver angrily thumped his steering wheel when he got back to the pit-lane.
Leclerc stayed second but had a damaged front wing endplate, although it came loose before the Ferrari driver would have been called in to make a change on safety grounds.
It was a heartbreaking moment for Perez, who has been in desperate need of a strong result to quieten whispers of an early departure from Red Bull.
The pressure on him had been heightened on Saturday when AlphaTauri’s Daniel Ricciardo, who could be called on to swap with Perez next year, qualified ahead of him.
Since winning two of the first four races, Perez has been on the podium just five times since, never on the top step. In the same spell, teammate Verstappen has claimed 12 victories.
In the fight for second in the championship, Perez leads Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton by 39 points, but the Mexican driver’s retirement has given the seven-time world champion a golden opportunity to take a big chunk out of that deficit.
Source: www.espn.com