Red Bull's Sergio Perez had been given the all-clear to compete in tomorrow's Monaco Grand Prix after suffering a heavy crash at the end of qualifying.
Perez spun while exiting the narrow right-hander at Portier that leads into the tunnel section. While relatively harmless in itself, he was then collected by an unsighted Carlos Sainz running close behind him into the blind turn..
As a result of the force of the impact, Perez was required to visit the Formula 1 medical centre because on-board sensors had detected that the crash exceeded the minimum G-force required for a mandatory evaluation.
“Just a shame what happened,” Perez said in the post-qualifying press conference once he had returned to the paddock.
“I almost lost it into turn 1, and in hindsight we didn’t get it right today," the Mexican driver lamented.
“I think the strategy with the tyres [was wrong]," he suggested. "Especially that final set. It wasn’t up to temperature and it was just too peaky.
“At the end, I was stuck behind one of the Ferraris and my final Q3 lap was tyres too cold," he continued. "I was quite close to my [earlier Q3] time, trying to make it up.
“I was trying to anticipate and get quite early on throttle, but as soon I touched the throttle it felt like the rear tyre was not gripping in and was playing with it until I lost it.
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"Turn 8 has been a difficult one for me throughout the qualifying session.
“I was actually surprised Carlos hit me at the time," he added. “Just a shame what happened, and I feel sorry for Carlos and rest of guys. But this is Monaco.”
The multiple impacts had left the RB18 looking very much the worse for wear. Perez agreed that it "looked bad” but was confident that it "should be OK for tomorrow" although he didn't go into details.
Assuming that the damage can be repaired without incurring any penalties, Perez will start the race from third on the grid behind the two Ferraris.
He'll be alongside his team mate Max Verstappen, but one place ahead as the Dutch driver has struggled to match Perez' pace throughout practice and qualifying.
“We’ve been competitive all the weekend," noted Perez. "Since FP1 we’ve always been in the top three. We were fastest in FP3..
“As always, to get the pole you have to maximise everything and it felt that we could’ve done better – especially on those out laps.
"In general I felt that the Ferraris were a bit ahead this weekend," he acknowledged, while adding that tomorrow was another day and anything was still possible.
"It’s a long race ahead. Obviously the starting position is very important here, but overall it has been a very competitive weekend.”
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