Perez blames dirty air for Sprint spin that puts him at back of British GP grid

Sergio Perez will start from the back of the grid or pit lane in the British Grand Prix after spinning off during the Sprint.

The Red Bull driver had a poor start and had dropped to seventh place behind Fernando Alonso and Lando Norris on the opening lap, but was trying to make progress again when he bizarrely went off exiting the fast flowing Maggotts-Becketts-Chapel complex at Silverstone. Perez said dirty air was the cause of his spin as he followed the two cars ahead and the damage to his tires later forced him to retire.

“Yes, (turbulent air) was pretty much it coming out of the corner already picking up quite a lot of throttle,” Perez said. “I think I got caught out in the dirty air and that made things hard. I became a passenger, basically, really early in the corner. A poor day from my side.

“We basically had too much vibrations from the tires from the spin and that was pretty much it.”

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Perez is likely to start from the pit lane to allow Red Bull to make setup changes to his car so he can try and climb back through the field in the race on Sunday, and he feels this weekend’s format has hurt him specifically as he’s taken a while to get up to speed at each circuit.

“I have been basically getting the developments slowly through the year. I think it has been difficult from the Friday point of view but the pace has been there from Saturday to Sunday. Like from Austria I and Austria II, everything would have looked very different without the incidents.

“Probably here is a place where we have been struggling the most. I don’t know if it is related to lighter fuel loads starting or something like that but I did struggle in the dirty air at the start of the race.”