Fortunately, all three drivers were able to walk away from their cars – Perez’s was spectacularly damaged with only his car’s survival cell really left intact – as the race was red-flagged to allow marshals to clear the debris.
Opinion was divided on who was to blame for the incident. Sky Sports pundit Martin Brundle felt Magnussen should have backed out of the move. “It was unnecessary from Kevin Magnussen to keep his car there,” he said. “There was a moment when K-Mag should have abandoned that. It was not worth the risk up there. You are fighting at the back against a Red Bull when you are not anywhere near alongside.”
But former world champion Jenson Button said Perez had to take his share of the blame, saying he found it “surprising” that Perez did not move to his left a bit despite knowing Magnussen was there.
Magnussen said later that he had “trusted” Perez would leave him room, arguing that he had a legitimate shot at taking the inside line and that Perez was not leaving him enough space.
But Perez took a dim view of that. “If you see my onboard, at no point do you see Kevin’s car – not even close to me, alongside me, and you could see that the wall is just getting closer and closer,” Perez explained.
“To keep it flat out, there was only one way out of it, and it was either contact with my car or with the barrier.
“There was just simply no room for both cars and at some point, he had to realise that – I mean, I’ve been in that situation – and many times when you are the car behind you just have to realise that it’s time to back off, before things get closer to you.”