Sergio Perez and Carlos Sainz continue to be at odds after sudden Azerbaijan GP crash

Carlos Sainz and Sergio Perez do not agree about the cause of their Baku crash

Carlos Sainz is adamant he did nothing “erratic” or “aggressive” to cause his late-race crash with Sergio Perez, but the Red Bull driver “expects” his rival to get a penalty.

Sainz and Perez brought out a late-race Virtual Safety Car when they crashed on the run down to Turn 3, Oscar Piastri taking the win ahead of Charles Leclerc.

Carlos Sainz and Sergio Perez crashed at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix

Although Perez spent much of the Grand Prix racing Piastri and Leclerc for the lead, he found himself fighting the Ferrari team-mates for second place with three laps to go after Piastri broke DRS and checked out in P1.

Perez challenged the leading Ferrari of Leclerc for second place but in the Monegasque driver’s defending, the door was opened for Sainz to pass Perez for second.

He then tried to fight Leclerc but he too was rebuffed which allowed Perez to come back at him, pulling up alongside the rear right of the Ferrari.

Sainz then appeared to move to the left, the two collided and both drivers finished the car with their cars in the barrier.

They have already been to the stewards with Sainz admitting he’s unsure as to the potential outcome of that.

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“I’m not sure,” he told Sky F1. “Honestly, you never know what can happen but I’m 100 per cent convinced I didn’t do anything wrong or anything aggressive.

He added: “Honestly, a very, very unfortunate ending. First of all, I’m glad Checo and I are okay.

“I drove a solid race, I was very quick out there. I was coming back in the top three, fastest man on track for the last 20 laps.

“But unfortunately after passing Checo into Turn One, and after fighting Charles into Turn Two, there was a very unexpected contact exiting Turn Two that, honestly I still don’t understand how it happened.

“I didn’t do any erratic manoeuvre, any aggressive moving on Checo or anything like that and, for some reason that I don’t understand still, we collided and that was the end.”

Perez, however, believes Sainz was in the wrong and explained his thoughts.

“In my opinion Carlos moved too quickly to follow the tow from Charles,” he said. “So I think I do expect… it was just wrong time, wrong moment, and it resulted in a huge shunt.”

“A real shame that it happened. Not really a lot more to say.”

With Perez not scoring and Max Verstappen only fifth at the chequered flag, Red Bull have officially lost the lead of the Constructors’ Championship where they now trail McLaren by 20 points.

“It’s a disaster for the championship, for both of us to end a weekend like this where we definitely had a lot more on the table. It’s a bit of a disaster,” rued Perez.

The crash was Perez and Sainz’s third incident of the weekend with both drivers handed warnings earlier in the weekend for getting in each other’s way. As race winner Piastri put it, “they finished the job!”

Read next: Azerbaijan GP: Oscar Piastri wins three-driver thriller with Perez and Sainz in last-gasp crash