Perez keeps podium following stewards investigation

Force India's Sergio Perez has kept his third place finish in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

The Mexican driver had been under investigation for activating his DRS incorrectly during the race.

An automatic detection point had failed early in the Grand Prix, forcing race control to allow drivers to activate DRS manually. Perez was deemed to have used the system improperly on two occasions during the race.

However, the stewards decided that the unusual circumstances and the fact that Perez had gained no advantage from it meant that a penalty was not appropriate.

"The Stewards heard from Sergio Perez, the driver of car 11, and the team representative," read the official statement from the FIA.

"It is apparent that the move to the 'default' setting if the DRS system malfunctions requires the team to convey to the driver, by radio, a series of steps to adjust various settings.

"In this case, the DRS light came on and as this was the first time the driver had experienced a default operation for the DRS, there was some misunderstanding of the procedure and the driver incorrectly activated the system manually.

"The system, however, was only activated twice, each time for a short distance before the driver and team recognised the error.

"The Stewards are satisfied that no car was overtaken through this incorrect use."

• Hamilton wins from Raikkonen as Red Bull wipes out in Baku

Williams Lance Stroll also escaped any penalty for improper DRS use in the race, after a visit to the race stewards following the Grand Prix

There was further good news for Force India when Esteban Ocon escaped a penalty for crashing into Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen on the opening lap.

"[Raikkonen] and his team representative conceded that the collision was typical of a first lap racing incident," read the stewards' findings.

"[Ocon] stated that the last vision he had of car 7 was on the straight after turn 2 which the two cars had successfully negotiated and that he had not seen car 7 on the inside into turn 3.

"[Ocon] accepted the comments of the stewards that a driver should not assume another car is not in his proximity just because he cannot see one, as it is well known that vision from the current cars is not optimum in some positions."

Not escaping quite so lightly, Red Bull drivers Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo were reprimanded for colliding with each other in the closing laps. Both drivers retired from the race after the incident.

Verstappen was blamed for making two moves to defend his position, but Ricciardo was also criticised for braking too late.

"Both drivers contributed to the collision," said the stewards. "Both drivers expressed regret about their respective contributions to the incident."

However, Sergey Sirotkin has been handed a three-place penalty for the Spanish Grand Prix for his first-lap collision with Perez. The Williams rookie also gets two penalty points on his superlicence.

And Haas' Kevin Magnussen similarly received two penalty points for a clash with Toro Rosso's Pierre Gasly during the final restart.

"[Magnussen] moved unpredictably and unnecessarily to the left and collided with car 10 [Gasly], which was maintaining its direction," said the stewards.

The Dane received a ten second penalty as well, but this did not alter his final position. However the penalty points mean he has received eight in the last 12 months; if he reaches 12 it will mean a mandatory one-race ban.

Like Perez and Stroll, Magnussen escaped a separate investigation into improper DRS use unscathed.

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