Perez, Sirotkin accept Singapore penalties were fair

Sergio Perez and Sergey Sirotkin both accepted they deserved penalties for incidents during Sunday's Singapore Grand Prix after both were sanctioned by the Formula 1 race stewards at Marina Bay.

After escaping any punishment for a clash at Turn 3 that left Force India teammate Esteban Ocon in the wall, Perez was hit with a drive-through penalty for a clash with Williams driver Sirotkin on Lap 27.

Perez had spent a number of laps growing frustrated behind Sirotkin, who was yet to pit, and managed to get alongside the Williams in the final sector, only to swipe his car to the left exiting Turn 17, causing the two cars to make contact.

Perez pitted due to damage sustained, but was deemed to have made a "potentially dangerous" move that resulted in a drive-through penalty. He ultimately finished the race one lap down in P16.

"It was very costly. It was hard racing, he was defending his position very hard, moving a lot under braking and locking up a lot under braking," Perez said.

"Then as I was going through him I tried to close the door, but I think he was too close there. In the end, not ideal. I don’t think it would have changed the result but it’s a shame we didn’t score any points.

"I have to see the incident but I think I probably closed the door earlier than I should have. I have to double check, but I think it was fair, the penalty."

Sirotkin added: "[There] was quite a big damage to the front part of my car, the flaps and bargeboards were properly damaged for me. Also the aero parts were moving throughout the lap, from corner to corner. After the point of the race it was just a case of survival."

Sirotkin himself was handed a five-second time penalty for forcing Brendon Hartley off the track when fighting for position later in the race, with the Toro Rosso driver being forced to bring his car to a near-stop in order to avoid hitting either Sirotkin or the wall.

"In the contact with Brendon, I didn’t know it until after the race and I wasn’t really fighting. I was kind of protecting my position under braking with my car completely damaged," Sirotkin said.

"I lost the car under braking and at that point I was just trying not to hit the wall. I understood was Brendon on the outside and I think he was waiting if I ended up in the wall or not. If you look at my onboard I was very close to park it there.

"It’s fair I got the penalty for it because I blocked him, but it was not because I wanted to fight him."

Asked if Sirotkin had gone too far with his defensive move, Hartley said: "Yes. I haven’t seen the replay, so if he locked up and made a mistake, fine.

"But if he forced me into the wall then he should have given me space. It wasn’t fair at all."