Perez admits he “nearly took Max out” at Miami F1 start

Sergio Perez admits he was fortunate not to take out team mate Max Verstappen after what Red Bull team boss Christian Horner called an “optimistic start” in the Miami GP.

Perez took the inside line on the way into the first corner as he battled with Charles Leclerc and then locked up and went straight on, just missing the rear of Verstappen’s car.

He then ran wide and had to find his way back onto the racing line without making contact or losing too many places.

“I had a good start, Charles had a really bad start,” he said. “But as soon as I braked there was no grip, like with Lewis [Hamilton] yesterday. Offline there was no grip and I ended up locking. I nearly took Max out, so I had to come off the brakes.

“It was quite close. But as soon as I saw he was so close I came off the brakes, and I ended up going straight, and I couldn’t keep the position.”

Horner admitted that it was a tricky moment for the team.

“His start was optimistic,” he said when asked by this writer about Perez’s start. “I think that obviously Charles didn’t have a great start ahead, I think that caused Checo to lift for Charles.

“And then [Leclerc] left him a window into the first corner, he went for it, and then obviously got in very deep and was lucky not to collect Max at the first turn, and then collect the Ferrari coming back onto the track after the first turn. So I was pleased to see both cars survive that.”

The Mexican eventually finished fifth on the road, but he then gained a spot from a time penalty for Carlos Sainz.

“I think we were struggling for some pace today,” he said. “We just couldn’t manage to get the pace when we needed it. It’s something that we’ve got to work on to try and understand why.

“I was a bit too much front limited in the high speed, and then rear limited in the low speed, so there was such a big trade-off between low and high speed.”

He also lost time when stuck behind Esteban Ocon after his pit stop: “Yeah, on the hard it took me a few laps to warm up the tyre.”

Perez conceded that McLaren showed impressive pace over the Miami weekend.

“They were very strong already in qualifying,” he said. “I think they just messed up a bit their qualifying, they couldn’t make the soft tyre work. But I think they’ve been the fastest this weekend. And we were probably a little bit behind them. Lando [Norris] put me on a lot of pressure on that first stint towards the end.”

Regarding the future threat from McLaren he added: “It would be track dependent, in some places we will be a bit stronger, in others not so strong.  But yeah, certainly I think it will be a very close fight with them.”