F1 legend wanted to punch Sergio Perez after Monaco Grand Prix crash dented title bid

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Sergio Perez should have known better than to mess with Kimi Raikkonen at the Monaco Grand Prix in 2013.

The Mexican – now at Red Bull – was racing for McLaren 11 years ago and in his first season with the team after replacing Lewis Hamilton.


Perez felt the fury of Raikkonen in Monaco

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And Perez was perhaps lucky both cars didn’t stop at the site of the collision

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But Perez wasn’t making too many friends.

Throughout the campaign, he’d been involved in numerous scrapes that hadn’t endeared him to his rivals.

And at the most iconic race in the calendar, one man finally lost his rag with the youngster.

Raikkonen, a notoriously spiky character, was in a battle for the Drivers’ Championship with Nico Rosberg, and the Lotus star was just four points off the lead.

In the race, Perez had already made two late-breaking moves at the Nouvelle chicane, on Jenson Button – his own teammate – and Fernando Alonso.

The third, though, on 2007 title winner Raikkonen ended badly with ‘Checo ‘ Perez breaking his front wing.

Raikkonen, meanwhile, was forced to pit after suffering a puncture and finished 10th, diminishing his chances of catching Rosberg.

“That f***ing idiot. I want to hit him when I see him,” fumed the Lotus driver on the team radio.


Raikkonen’s Lotus was ahead going into the chicane

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Perez tried his late-break move again, but there was no getting past the Finnish star

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The main casualties were Perez’s front wing and Raikkonen’s tyre

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After the race, the feeling hadn’t changed much either.

Asked if his colleagues would talk to Perez about his actions, Raikkonen said: “That won’t help. Maybe someone should punch him in the face.”

Future six-time Grand Prix winner Perez though didn’t believe he’d done much wrong.

He said: “Kimi did not give me any room at all. I touched the wall on the entry to the corner and I had no room for that.

“It was really, really a big shame. I overtook [teammate] Jenson Button and Alonso [of Ferrari], and Jenson overtook me there. You have to give some space.

“The main issue was the overheating of the brakes so we have to analyse what happened there.”

Alonso, like Raikkonen, wasn’t too happy with his antics on track.

The Spaniard said: “Really I don’t want to make too much attention on this.

“Perez, he has the car parked there in the Rascasse and that is the only comment I can say.

“He was lucky this year with two or three incidents. In Bahrain, he nearly had contact with Jenson, and with me, I was off the track to avoid a contact.

“Here I cut the chicane to avoid a contact again. Kimi was not lucky because he didn’t avoid the contact and at the end Perez retired. Only McLaren have to be happy with him, the others we just need to do our work.”

This year Perez needs to improve with his position at Red Bull under increasing pressure.

An eighth-place finish – almost a minute – behind his teammate Max Verstappen at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix hasn’t done him any favours.

Any repeat of his drive over a decade ago at this weekend’s Monaco Grand Prix will only increase speculation about his future at the team.


Source: TalkSport.com Motorsport