Sergio Perez blames Felipe Massa for their huge shunt at the Canadian GP

Sergio Perez has blamed Felipe Massa for their huge shunt on the final lap of the Canadian GP, with the Force India driver claiming he’d left his Williams rival enough room to overtake.

Perez and Massa were disputing fourth place as they crossed the start-finish line at the start of lap 70. Funnelling right towards Turn 1, however, their cars touched with both spearing into crash barriers at high speed - Massa's Williams only just missing the third-placed Red Bull of Sebastian Vettel.

Stewards blamed Perez for the crash, saying that he had changed his racing line, and have hit the Force India driver with a five-place grid penalty for the upcoming Austrian GP.

Massa said that Perez "needs to learn" with the Mexican responding on Monday. "It was very disappointing to lose such a strong result through no fault of our own," Perez said. "I was following the same line and braking patterns as in the previous laps and I just got hit from behind by Massa. There was plenty of space on the left of my car to attempt a clean overtake and I cannot understand why he had to scrape by.

“I watched several replays of the incident and I can't help but notice how Felipe turns right just before he hits me. I can only think he must have changed his mind and wanted to rejoin the racing line, his misjudgement cost us a big amount of points.

F1 Midweek Report