- Force India
Perez hits back at Williams criticism over Massa shunt
Sergio Perez has hit back at suggestions he was to blame for his accident with Felipe Massa at the Canadian Grand Prix and denies his car should have been retired before the collision.
Perez's race came to an end on the final lap after contact with Massa under braking for Turn 1, which he was later penalised for. However, he claims he did not change his line from the previous laps when he was defending against the Red Bulls of Daniel Ricciardo and Sebastian Vettel and believes Massa should have given him more space.
"It was very disappointing to lose such a strong result through no fault of our own," he said. "I was following the same line and braking patterns as in the previous laps and I just got hit from behind by Massa. There was plenty of space on the left of my car to attempt a clean overtake and I cannot understand why he had to scrape by.
"I watched several replays of the incident and I can't help but notice how Felipe turns right just before he hits me. I can only think he must have changed his mind and wanted to rejoin the racing line, his misjudgement cost us a big amount of points."
Senior Williams engineer Rob Smedley suggested Force India should have retired the car after Perez reported that he had lost his brakes over the radio. However, Perez, who said after the race that the problem was electrical, insists the car was "perfectly driveable" with a few setting changes.
"I'm not happy about comments saying we should have retired the car. It was perfectly driveable with just some adjustments and we showed it up until the moment in which we were taken out.
"Other cars out there had been in similar conditions for way longer than us and they finished the race without problems. If someone thinks you can keep two Red Bulls behind for as long as we did with so-called 'terminal' problems, they are clearly misguided."
© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
