Perez accuses Ricciardo of “very disrespectful” Q1 move
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Sergio Perez says Daniel Ricciardo’s attempted pass on him late on during qualifying for Formula 1’s 2019 Hungarian Grand Prix was a “very disrespectful” move.Ricciardo caught up to the back of Romain Grosjean’s Haas and the Racing Point of Perez in a bottleneck at the final corner and attempted to get past both drivers before opening up his final flying effort in Q1.Having swept around the outside of Grosjean, the Renault driver also tried to pass Perez, but the Mexican held the inside line, forcing Ricciardo to back out. Perez, who reckons he could have made it into Q2 with a “perfect” Q1, was left to settle with the 17th-quickest time, while Ricciardo was also eliminated in the opening segment of qualifying in 18th.“We were stuck with traffic so everyone is trying to open a gap,” Perez explained.“You see the car ahead and everyone is just opening gaps. But I think what Daniel tried there was just very disrespectful.“He screwed up his lap and my lap and I end up starting my lap to close to Norris, and I think Daniel was also very close to me, so it was just a very bad day for us.”Ricciardo described the situation as a “mess” but felt Renault could have done more to prevent the incident from occurring in the first place.“It actually felt OK but obviously the last run is when you’ve got to do it and it was just a bit of a mess basically, opening the lap,” Ricciardo said.“We put ourselves in traffic and at that point, I felt we could have known what was going to happen better coming up to the last corner, if I needed to create space earlier.“So I wasn’t creating space and then we got to the last corner and everyone was backed up, so what do you do, do you try and pass them and keep your tyre temperature there, or do you hang back and start the lap with cold tyres?“I tried to go and then obviously Perez and the others went. I felt like Perez and I just screwed each other but just too late trying to make something happen and then the lap is compromised.“Right now, it’s certainly the most upset I’ve been in a while.”Grosjean, who was also caught up in the incident, said Ricciardo’s actions ended the ‘gentleman’s agreement’ understanding between drivers.“I thought there was a gentleman’s agreement, I think that agreement is completely gone,” he said.“It’s always going to be a mess before the last corner. There were a couple of cars being very aggressive, I believe there was one Mercedes which went around the field.“Daniel is behind me and we are all lining up to start the lap – I was behind Sergio and Daniel tried to pass me, so I was weaving a little bit to say, ‘hey, don’t pass me boy!’“He did it and I saw he was going for Perez so I thought OK, I’ll back a little bit and this is not going to go well.“It’s down to the car behind you not to attack anyone, to back off, at the last corner. Alonso did it with Magnussen in Monza last year and Perez did it with Ricciardo.“It’s not so nice from the guy behind, especially when there’s time left at the end of the session to go round, we’re all struggling with tyres and know those tyres are very sensitive to temperature.“We’re all in line so ask your team so ask your team to let you go earlier if you don’t want to be in a traffic jam.””4
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