Mazepin penalised for holding up Perez in Portuguese F1 GP

While leading the race at Portimao, Perez looked to lap Mazepin into Turn 3.

Mazepin left the door open for Perez but then shut it, causing the Red Bull driver to back out and lose over two seconds in lap time.

Perez branded the Haas driver as an “idiot” over team radio.

Mazepin was also handed a five-second time penalty for the incident, although it had no impact on his final race result after finishing 19th.

The stewards noted that Haas failed to warn Mazepin about Perez.

The stewards’ statement read: “Car nine [Mazepin] had just departed the pits with car 11 [Perez] approaching down the main straight. Car nine turned into the apex of turn three while car 11 was attempting to overtake on the inside at the entrance to the corner. Car 11 was forced to abandon the pass and lock up to avoid a collision.

“While not mitigating the breach of the regulations, the stewards note that Car nine did not have a radio warning in time to react.”

Perez’s result was unaffected by the incident with Mazepin as once he stopped for fresh rubber, he rejoined in fourth, where he had been running before the leading trio stopped.

Lewis Hamilton went onto claim his 97th career victory to extend his championship lead over Max Verstappen.

Valtteri Bottas dropped from pole to finish third, picking up the fastest lap after Verstappen had his lap deleted for exceeding track limits at Turn 14.