Perez Concussed in Monaco Crash at LinesMaker

Perez Concussed in Monaco Crash

Sauber’s Ser­gio Perez will be kept in hos­pi­tal overnight fol­low­ing a heavy crash in Monaco Grand Prix qualifying.

The Mex­i­can, 21, lost con­trol of his Sauber com­ing out of the tun­nel and hit the safety bar­rier at the chicane.

Sauber said Perez had “con­cus­sion and a sprained thigh, but no bro­ken bones and, fol­low­ing a scan, doc­tors could find no fur­ther injuries”.

Perez, who is in his first sea­son in F1, is unlikely to be able to take part in Sunday’s race.

Sauber added that they would inves­ti­gate the cause of the accident.

Perez was off line as he came out of the tun­nel and was still in the mid­dle of the track when he lost con­trol as the cir­cuit starts to go down­hill towards the chicane.

He was at least a full car’s length to the left of the rac­ing line, and the lack of grip on the dusty sur­face there almost cer­tainly con­tributed to his accident.

Perez hit the bar­ri­ers side on and the ses­sion was stopped for half an hour while crews extri­cated him from the car and took him to the med­ical cen­tre before the bar­rier was repaired.

Perez, who took his first points in Spain last week­end, is now in Monaco’s Princess Grace hos­pi­tal, to which he was accom­pa­nied by his father, phys­io­ther­a­pist and manager.

Perez’s acci­dent was the third this week­end suf­fered by a dri­ver com­ing out of the tun­nel and head­ing to the chi­cane after Renault’s Vitaly Petrov also crashed there on Thurs­day and Mer­cedes dri­ver Nico Ros­berg suf­fered a sim­i­lar inci­dent at the same place in final practice.

Rosberg’s crash was caused by him lock­ing his brakes over the bumps at that part of the track, to which low tyre pres­sures prob­a­bly con­tributed, accord­ing to Mercedes.

Unlike Perez, he nar­rowly missed the bar­ri­ers at the chi­cane, com­ing to a halt in the mid­dle of the track after the corner.

Rosberg’s car was launched into the air by ‘sleep­ing police­ment’ in the run-off area at the chi­cane, but race direc­tor Char­lie Whit­ing had these removed before qual­i­fy­ing to pre­vent that hap­pen­ing in any later crash.

Sauber reported Perez to be con­scious and aware

But­ton, who crashed at the same place in 2005, said: “Ser­gio Perez had a big acci­dent, I’m glad he is OK.

“I know how hard the bar­rier is there. The g-forces you pull are incredible.

“I love rac­ing here, it has a spe­cial atmos­phere, but I still think we can improve the safety and that’s an area where we have to push.”

Cham­pi­onship leader Sebas­t­ian Vet­tel said he had been ask­ing for updates on Perez’s con­di­tion as he waited in his car for the ses­sion to be restarted.

He joined all the lead­ing dri­vers in say­ing their thoughts were with him and offer­ing hopes that he would be back in the car soon.

“There is a shadow over the last qual­i­fy­ing ses­sion with the acci­dent Ser­gio Perez had,” Vettel said.

“We were all wait­ing and I was ask­ing if we can get an update. Hope­fully he is rac­ing soon. It is hard to retain your focus.”

Related Posts:

• Vet­tel Seals Dra­matic Monaco Win
• Rubens Unhappy with Monaco DRS Call
• Hamil­ton Eyes Monaco Improvement
• Pilot Error Caused Crash That Killed KHL Team
• Another Hamil­ton, Massa Crash

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
•