Perez gets the F1 screw for daring to race

Sergio Perez the latest to get the F1 screw – you don't race in F1, you parade

Sergio Perez has said he does not understand why he was given a five-second penalty at the French Grand Prix.

The SportPesa Racing Point driver was handed a five-second time penalty on Lap 1 for apparently gaining an advantage when going off track, but he believes he was following the instructions issued prior to the race.

“I don’t understand why I got the penalty," Perez told Motorsport.com. “I did what I’m supposed to do, which is to go around the bollard, and you are meant to go slower, but apparently I gained an advantage.

“I have to review to see what I did wrong, but from my point, it’s so hard to judge where you are on track. I ended up behind Hulkenberg, which is where I started, where I was into Turn 1, so I just have to review that.

“If you go around the bollard you are meant to lose a lot of time. It’s what I did. It’s a pain in the ass to have to go around the bollard, but I stuck to the rules and I still got the penalty.

“The rule is clear. If you are out for whatever reason you just have to go around the bollard. It’s what I did, but I think probably going around the bollard is not slow enough so we have to make it slower."

Perez believes the team were fast enough to get points, and that the penalty robbed them of that chance.

“I think we had good form," he said. “We were close to the Renaults and Alfas. In race pace, we were a lot closer today and we deserved some points. But yeah, the points were taken away from us.

“It’s very promising the pace that we had in the race, so I’m pleased with that. We were a lot closer and we’ll see what we can do better next week. Hopefully, we get back to the points."

The Mexican’s P12 finish meant that he has now gone four races without getting any points, and has thus dropped to P13 in the driver standings.