Horner blames Sainz for late crash with Perez at F1 Azerbaijan GP

Red Bull team boss Christian Horner pointed the blame at Carlos Sainz after the Ferrari clashed with Sergio Perez towards the end of a thrilling Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

With the pair squabbling over third place coming out of turn 2 on the penultimate lap, they had a coming together that resulted in both cars hitting the barriers and bringing out a virtual safety car for the remainder of the race.

Having scored just 36 points in the last 10 rounds, Perez was back to his best on the streets of Baku and had been chasing the leading duo of Oscar Piastri – the eventual winner – and Charles Leclerc for the second half of the grand prix.

His frustration was clear as he swore over the team radio following the crash, with Horner in no doubt where he felt the blame lay.

“He deserved a lot more. I was just looking at the replay and you can see Carlos start to drift across the circuit. So, very disappointing, he should at very least have been on the podium today,” he told Sky Sports F1.

“You have to look at what will be imposed for the following weekend (in terms of a potential penalty for Sainz), it has destroyed the race for Checo today, cost us a lot of damage and obviously vital points in the constructors’ championship.”

Meanwhile, Sainz reckoned the blame lay with Perez. "I did my normal racing line," the Ferrari driver claimed. "I didn't do any strange maneuver or anything. And for some reason that I still don't understand, we collided and yeah, I think he had plenty of space to the left."

When asked how he was going to explain the collision to the stewards, Sainz answered: "That I do my normal racing line and the line that we all do in every lap of this track: exit in turn two, we always drift a bit towards the left, but without doing any weird or erratic manoeuvre.

"Charles in front of me is going to the left also, I'm just following his slipstream obviously, and I don't know, Checo I think decides not to give in any kind of movement or space, but it's too early to say."

Having been under pressure from Perez and Sainz, Leclerc hung on to second position, with his tyres having dropped off a cliff after following the McLaren of Piastri for so long.

George Russell was promoted to the third step of the podium, while championship contender Lando Norris took recovered to fourth from 15th on the grid