Perez apologises to Leclerc for clashes: 'Not the way I like to race' in F1

Perez picked up two separate five-second time penalties for running Leclerc out of road at Turn 4 and Turn 6 respectively.

The Mexican recovered to fifth on track but dropped to sixth after his two penalties were applied, putting him behind Carlos Sainz.

Perez’s race was immediately compromised early on after he was run wide by Lando Norris at Turn 4, putting the Red Bull driver in the gravel as he dropped to tenth.

“It’s lap one and over the limit,” Perez said when explaining his battle with Norris. “Lando got away, he didn’t have any damage but I basically had my race ruined afterwards. Yeah, I got some damage from the gravel I guess.”

“With Charles, we were running in dirty air, a lot of traffic, very old tyres and just braking as late as possible, running out of road and ending up with contact. I will have to review all of the incidents to be honest.

“That’s not the way I like to race. I am extremely sorry if I affected the race of Charles because that’s not the way I do my racing.”

Perez revealed that he has already spoken to Leclerc about the incidents.

“Yeah I spoke to him and explained what happened from my side but obviously it’s not enough. I don’t feel comfortable with myself knowing that I ruined a race of another driver. I will say I have to review the incidents and move on.”

The stewards handed Perez four penalty points for the two incidents, bringing his total for the 12-month period up to eight.