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Sergio Perez feels that Lewis Hamilton overtook him illegally by running off the track and gaining an advantage at the 2023 F1 Singapore GP. Furthermore, Perez was confused as to why the seven-time world champion escaped a penalty as he did not give the place back after the move.
Speaking to RaceFans, Perez stated that on lap 24, Hamilton braked quite late going into turn seven, went off the track, and overtook him by gaining an advantage. The Red Bull driver emphasized that these kinds of gray areas in the sport must not exist.
“To me, it was clear that Lewis just [braked] really late and went off the circuit and gained an advantage. Something that we’ve got to understand going forward,” Perez said.
Looking back at the race, Lewis Hamilton went for the move at turn seven, when both cars were at the turn's apex itself. Hamilton was already ahead of the Red Bull driver. Although most of the overtaking was done when the Mercedes driver was on the track, at the very end he understeered just a bit, which caused him to leave the track for a brief moment.
Even various F1 pundits and commentators during the race were debating whether the overtake should be investigated and penalized or not.
In the end, Lewis Hamilton secured third place for the podium finish, mainly due to his teammate George Russell hitting the barriers on the last lap and retiring from P3.
Alex Albon frustrated with Sergio Perez's aggressive overtaking tactics
Sergio Perez himself was pretty feisty during the 2023 F1 Singapore GP. During the latter stages of the race, he was racing with Alex Albon to get the last points position.
Perez was making some aggressive moves to overtake the Williams driver. This annoyed Albon quite a lot since he was destroying his tires while defending. In the middle of the race, the Mexican driver even tried to overtake Albon even though there was no room to do so, causing the Thai driver to go straight and bump into the barriers. Albion let out his frustration to his team while racing.
"He tried to do that move to me two or three times before and I had to miss him. I had to just pull out to stop him from hitting me. So sorry, but I can't do that every single time he tries to take a launch and take avoiding action. I thought he would have this under control but he didn't," Albon said on team radio.
Sergio Perez ended up in eighth position and gained four points, while Alex Albon ended up in 11th with zero.
