POLL: Sergio Perez recieves nine-place grid penalty for sprint

9th July 2022 0 By Kamron Kent

Red Bull’s Sergio Perez will start the F1 Austrian Grand Prix Sprint Race P13 after the Mexican driver was handed a nine-place grid penalty for exceeding track limits in Qualifying Two.

In Friday’s qualifying session, Perez had exceeded track limits as he blasted his RB18 around turns seven and eight. As a result, the lap time had been enough to get the Mexican driver into Qualifying Three while the likes of Alpha Tauri’s Pierre Gasly was the unlucky victim to miss out on a top 10 finish.

After the session, race control looked at the Q2 incident and decided that deleting all of Perez’s lap times in Q3, including his 17th lap time – in Q2. As a result, this meant the #11 Red Bull was demoted from P4 down to P13 ahead of the sprint race.

After the news broke that race control were going to investigate it, we put a poll out on social media.

We asked:

“What do you think would be the most appropriate punishment, from the stewards, in regards to Sergio Perez’s track limits violation?”

Here are the results, at the time of writing, out of 41 votes:

4. Reprimand / Fine – 14.6%

A reprimand looked to be the less likely option for exceeding track limits. It would have given Perez a slap on the wrist, and probably a financial fine, for exceeding track limits. Ultimately, it would have seen the FIA and race control admitting fault that they didn’t take action sooner.

Only 14.6% of votes decided this would have been the most appropriate punishment – the least amount of votes across the entire pole.

3. 5-place grid penalty – 17.1%

A five-place grid penalty was the second highest, most-severe, punishment out of the available options. Based on the original qualifying results, this would have placed Perez between the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton, in P10, and Alpine’s Fernando Alonso, in P9.

This option was the third favourite out of the voters, likely down to feeling as though five-place grid penalty remained unfit for Perez’s violation.

2. 3-place grid penalty – 22%

Had race control opted for a three-place grid penalty, this would have been the second-least severe punishment out of the poll. In the end, this would have still demoted Perez from the second row of the sprint race down to P7 – the fourth row.

Nearly a quarter of the votes opted for this option, with 22% of the votes.

1. 10-place grid penalty – 46.3%

A 10-place grid penalty was the most severe option for the voters to choose from which would have seen the Mexican race winner go down to P14. In the end, this option was the closest to the real decision made by the stewards – one place more than the actual result.

46.3% of the voters decided this was the most suitable punishment for Perez track limit violation. In the end, the steward’s thought the same.

That’s it for the article: POLL: Sergio Perez recieves nine-place grid penalty for sprint! What do you think, did the punishment fit the crime? Let us know in the comments!

Kamron Kent

Hi, I'm Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion. I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I've loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.

CategoryFormula 1 Formula Series

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Kamron Kent

POLL: Sergio Perez recieves nine-place grid penalty for sprint