Sergio Perez claims that incorrect information from the FIA over the withdrawal of the virtual safety car led to him losing out to George Russell in today's French Grand Prix.

Inheriting third when Charles Leclerc crashed out on lap 17, Sergio Perez spent the next ten laps fending off George Russell, before a charging Carlos Sainz passed the Mercedes to mount his own attack.

When Sainz made his shock pit stop, moments after passing the Red Bull, Perez once again found himself under attack from Russell.

The Briton eventually made a move at the chicane, and as the pair touched the Red Bull driver went off, cutting the chicane in the process.

While Russell insisted that the Mexican hand back the position, the stewards saw it differently and opted to take no action.

Then came the VSC that followed Guanyu Zhou's retirement, and when it was withdrawn just a couple of laps later Perez appeared to be caught on the hop.

Russell slowed right down, then suddenly raced forward, passing the Red Bull and leaving Perez for dead.

"It's a shame that the virtual safety car interfered with the result, to be honest," said Perez at race end. "It shouldn't be the case, but it was today the case. It was really unfortunate what happened.

"I got the message that the VSC was going to end out of turn nine, so I went for it," he explained. "But it didn't end, and I had the message saying that it's going to end all the way through turn 12. I was just too close to it.

"It was totally wrong with the system, there was something going on," he insisted. "It said it was going to end out of turn 9 and it only ended out of turn 13.

"It seems like George had different information and he was able to prepare better for it."

"Checo struggled a little more this weekend with degradation than we've seen previously," said Christian Horner. "What was frustrating for him is there was an issue in race control with the safety car, the VSC, because they couldn't turn it off, so they had to do a reset.

"He said he wasn't getting the delta in his car, so he was bang on his delta," he added. "George either pre-empted it, but was within the delta, or maybe the information to the two cars was different. We have to go and explore that.

"It was frustrating, because I think he would have had the pace to hold him off for a double podium."

Once the reason behind the deployment of the VSC has been resolved, usually meaning the track has been cleared, the teams are messaged by race control to advise that the VSC period is ending, the race is then supposed to go green at "any time between 10 and 15 seconds later", at which point the drivers are allowed to resume racing. However, in this particular case the message was delayed by almost a minute.

In a statement issued after the race, the FIA said: "A second VSC ending message was sent due to a hardware issue, which led to an automated switch to backup systems that worked exactly as they should in that scenario.

"The same information is supplied to all teams concurrently. The VSC ending countdown time to the green light being displayed on the trackside panels is always random."

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READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by Pavlo, 25/07/2022 18:08

"In the interest of the sport and to remove any controversy would be to remove the unnecessary procedures. Make it simple: “Director calls Yellow flags, VSC or SC whenever feels it’s unsafe to race normally and removes them whenever sees it’s safe to continue racing”.
It would resolve AbuDhabi as well and really puts safety first.
It also would make VSC safer, because now with current system with the delta drivers can drive at full speed at some places and slow down extremely to balance the delta, as we saw between Perez and Russell. If they wouldn’t know when it finishes, they would be more interested in driving constantly slower.
"

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2. Posted by Endre, 25/07/2022 16:56

"If the FIA had "hardware issues" it is doubtful they woul know when the messages to each car actually went out, regardless if they pushed the send button to all teams at the same time. Perez is a serious guy, I would believe what he claims.

The biggest issue is that he should not have been in that position, he should have been out in the from behind Max, and not battling Mercedes."

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3. Posted by Spindoctor, 25/07/2022 16:23

"Glad to se at least someone at RBR has a sense of humour\irony :-)"

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4. Posted by JamesD, 25/07/2022 15:39

"I understand the frustration but the fact is George read the situation better and got the overtake done.

All the drivers got the information at the same time, even if it took longer than usual."

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5. Posted by Wokingchap, 25/07/2022 13:50

"Well Mr Perez, the FIA said "The same information is supplied to all teams concurrently"."

Perez hits out at virtual safety car 'error'

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