Crash after brake failure capped difficult weekend for Sergio Perez
Force India's Sergio Perez says he felt “sad” for his team after a brake failure cost them a possible seventh place in Austria.
Perez was eighth on the road but was still set to pick up a position from the penalized Romain Grosjean when he went off on the penultimate lap. The team had not been able to communicate with him about the extent of his brake issues due to the radio restrictions.
The Mexican had a difficult weekend, having given up his car to Alfonso Celis in FP1, lost much of FP2 to the rain, and then suffered a rear suspension failure in Q1 that left him 16th on the grid.
“We basically had bad luck the whole weekend,” he said. “It's been a strong weekend for us, with the limited mileage that I had all the way through, I think we managed to recover well. We were doing a tremendous race, and I was fighting for position with Grosjean, because he had a penalty of five seconds, so I was pushing hard. The brakes were feeling fine and then I got into Turn 3, and I had no brakes. I pressed the pedal and there was nothing in it, so I went straight into the tire barrier.
“I'm feeling sad for the team basically, because we deserved those points. It was a great chance to take points out of Williams, and we didn't. We have to improve our reliability, and go from there.
“I'm happy with my performance the whole weekend. My pace, my rhythm, and everything is still, so that's the main thing. I've done everything right today, but sometimes these failures happen.”
