Carlos Sainz has revealed how he spent an “awkward” 20 minutes in the medical centre with Sergio Perez moments after their penultimate-lap crash in Formula 1's Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
The pair were duelling for a place on the podium in Baku before their coming together after Turn 2 ended with both drivers in the wall.
Sainz had been attempting to pass Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc, who was struggling with his rear tyres, while Perez was aiming for a strong race having been on a run of poor form in his Red Bull.
The stewards ultimately deemed it was a racing incident and Sainz set the scene in the medical centre as the duo underwent examination.
“We were awkwardly sat next to each other for 20 minutes in the medical centre, both with a heart rate monitor and controlling our vitals,” said Sainz.
“We were looking at each other and saying: ‘mate, what the f*** happened there? And we were like: I don't know. But I promise I didn't do anything bad to you, Checo. I didn't close you off. I didn’t do anything’.
“We were having this dialogue and trying to analyse what happened. And suddenly, after these 20 minutes, we were like: this sport is so shit sometimes. How can we be here and missing out on the podium? We had the podium.
“Charles was dying on his hard tyres out there. We were probably both going to have a go at him. And we were both sitting there like: ‘how on earth did we manage to not finish in the podium?’
“It was a podium coming - and in the end we kind of joked about it, so no hard feelings with each other.”
Perez echoed the sentiment of the Spaniard as the two drivers rued the collision that cost them both an impressive haul of points.
“Once we took our helmets off, we realised that we both screwed it up, that finishing a race like that was really disappointing,” Perez said.
“We were in the medical centre, and they were checking us out, we were both fine and we both wanted to leave as soon as possible because we were both super, super sad with the outcome.
“It is behind us and I really hope we can both have a really strong end to the season.
“I think it was just wrong moves at the wrong time and I think in the end it is just irrelevant at the moment, who is to blame.
“We both ended up with zero points, damaging our teams a lot and it was something we were having a chat, and we were thinking the amount of damage for us, with especially Charles struggling so much, that in the end we should have been on the podium, but we were not. But it is irrelevant now, let’s turn the page.”
A shot from Perez’s onboard camera showed the Mexican approaching Sainz having climbed out of his stricken Red Bull and seemingly pushing the Ferrari man’s helmet.
Perez was widely criticised on social media as the clip began to circulate but said he had no recollection of the incident.
“I was chatting to Carlos as he was looking down and I was talking to him, I didn’t push his head,” explained Perez.
“It looks worse on the video than it is, obviously Carlos is one of my best mates in the drivers’ group so the last person I would like to have come together with is Carlos.
“We have turned the page and hopefully both of us can have a tremendous race.
“Social media can sometimes be very toxic in that regard, so it is best to stay away because most of the time people don’t know exactly the truth and the truth is we were both extremely disappointed.
“There are things [posted] like I did hit his head or any of the other comments I’ve seen, I have nothing to say about it, Carlos knows exactly and we actually walked together after it to the paddock and we were both just super disappointed with ourselves after such a race that we finished our weekends like that.”
