Picture Credit: Twitter
Red Bull driver Sergio Perez recently revealed a special helmet for the Austrian Grand Prix which is held at the Red Bull ring in Spielberg, Styria. The helmet has the classic red and white colour scheme based on the Austrian flag with a Mexican flag on the top. In the video where Perez revealed the helmet, he deemed the design as one of his favourites.
The helmet was revealed on the RedBull racing and Checo Perez’s Twitter accounts. Perez captioned the photos with, “What do you think of my helmet for the #AustrianGP a great piece to run the gp at home of @redbullracing It is certainly very special! Hope you like it!” (translated from Spanish).
But before Saturday’s sprint race Sergio Perez and Red Bull were hit with a big obstacle as Checo’s Q3 lap times were deleted for track limits infringements, after the session for breaching the track limits rules. Hence he will be starting in 13th place instead of being fourth on the grid.
Reacting to the penalty, the Red Bull racer said "It is disappointing to lose fourth place, the track limits are very tight here this season, but it is frustrating that the team weren’t told my lap time had been deleted during Q2. We have the Sprint tomorrow to make up ground and a long race ahead. We have to keep our head down and push hard to make progress and put us in a good position for Sunday.”
The stewards' made a statement addressing their ruling that said, “The team made the point that they took both risk and expended resources to compete in Q3. The stewards accept this point. However, in assessing a penalty after a session, this is no different than any other situation.
“The usual penalty is deleting the lap time concerned, and the stewards order the same penalty here. However, as a consequence, the driver would not have proceeded into Q3 and therefore, in fairness to all the other competitors, the steward's order that all the lap times for Q3 for the driver also are deleted,” the statement said.