Perez 'regrets' Austrian GP F1 incidents with Leclerc

Perez dropped down to tenth in the early stages in Austria after he was pushed off the track by Lando Norris as the pair duelled for second - Norris was handed a five-second penalty for the incident.

The Mexican then picked up two five-second penalties of his own after he ran Leclerc out of room at Turn 4 and then Turn 5 midway through the race.

Reflecting on the events of the last race, Perez feels he was right to try the move on Norris but conceded that his defending against Leclerc overstepped the mark.

“I think with Lando, I saw the gap, I went for it. It didn’t work out the way I hoped it would but I had to go for it - it would have made up my race,” Perez said ahead of this weekend’s race at Silverstone. “In hindsight, if I waited more I probably could have got him later and so on, so the result would have been a lot better. It’s always easy to know after the race.

“With Charles, it was a bit too close. I think I regret the first one, the first incident with him into Turn 4 because I think we were just too hot with everything - brakes, tyres. I should have avoided touching with him on that first one so as I say, that one was probably fair to get the penalty.

“But then the second one, there was not much that I could do because I’m pushing and I lost the car in the middle of the corner and eventually the run-off finishes there. It was a very bad race from my side. I have reset from it, taken the positives which was the pace in qualifying and also the pace in the race in clear air and so on. I just hope this weekend we can have a much better one.”

Leclerc revealed that he and Perez cleared the air after the race at the Red Bull Ring, insisting there are “no bad feelings” going into this weekend’s British GP.

“I spoke to him straight away after the race and I could feel that straight away he felt like he had gone a bit too far, and then we saw each other like 20 minutes after the heat of the moment and then he apologized,” Leclerc added.

“There are no bad feelings whatsoever, obviously, during the race, I was quite frustrated, I felt like there was quite a bit more pace from me and I couldn’t show it but it’s fine, it’s part of racing and now I’ll just look forward.”