Perez defends his Lap 1 move: ‘I am proud of myself because I gave it my all'

Perez crashed out on the opening lap after misjudging his turning point into Turn 1, colliding with Leclerc which sent his Red Bull airborne. 

It was a sad end to Perez’s home grand prix as he was aiming for a third consecutive Mexico City GP podium.

Reflecting on Lap 1, Perez described it as a “racing incident” but conceded he couldn’t pass up on the opportunity to potentially lead in front of his home crowd.

“I had a tremendous start, the gap was there,” Perez explained. “To be honest since I was starting the race, I’d be really disappointed to be on the podium knowing that I had a chance to go for the lead and I didn’t take it. I just went for it.

“I wasn’t expecting Charles, he was in middle, and he had less room to manoeuvre and to brake as late as I or Max did. I think simply there was no room for three cars. It was a total racing incident.

“In hindsight, I should have…I don’t know…I shouldn’t say that but in hindsight, I should back out and go home. I just wanted to give it all, went totally for it. I’m very sad for the end result, to end the race on the first lap at your home grand prix is definitely really sad.

“On the other hand, I’m extremely proud of myself because I gave it my all. We left it all [on the table] the whole weekend. We had probably the best start of the year. We just went for it.”

With Hamilton finishing second, the gap between the pair in the race for P2 is now just 20 points.

Despite another disappointing Sunday, Perez isn’t concerned by his lack of good results.

“The result will come, we’re back there. Our pace is there,” Perez added.

“We knew what was wrong, the results will come. I’m not concerned by it, I’m more sad about it. You see with a lot of drivers, they have bad weekends when they’re not fully comfortable.

“You see this weekend from Fernando, it’s not like Fernando is a bad driver all of a sudden.

“And he struggles to find the pace of the car. This is just part of the game.”