Christian Horner: Stewards taking away 2022 F1 Singapore GP's win from Sergio Perez would've been incredibly shameful

Christian Horner criticized the investigation brought into Sergio Perez's safety car rule infringement. The Briton believes that it was not a big issue, and taking away Perez's win would have been shameful.

The Mexican, who had led the GP from the very start, took a seven-and-a-half second gap over Charles Leclerc, who was P2 at the flag. Later, the Red Bull boss criticized the whole situation,

“For us, this time, it really was a non-issue. The stewards took their time with it, but they reached the right decision. It would have been a incredible shame to have taken that victory away from Checo.”

However, Horner felt that Perez was never in the wrong, to begin with. He explained,

“The Safety Car could have been a real stumbling block but how many times have we had to deal with a Safety Car lap and how many precedents are there?”

The Race Director had warned Red Bull about Sergio Perez falling behind the safety car. The Mexican broke the rule as the leader is required to keep within 10 car lengths of the safety car.

Sergio Perez was handed a five-second penalty and a reprimand post the podium celebrations. Fortunately, he got to keep his win and was finalized as the GP winner.

---

Sergio Perez was never close enough for Charles Leclerc to pull off an overtake

Charles Leclerc revealed his side of the story about not being able to attempt a proper overtake on Sergio Perez. As Red Bull's pace was faster, the Monegasque driver revealed how he was never close enough.

Despite Perez's lockups and many mistakes, the F1-75 was still behind RB-18's superior pace. Leclerc explained,

"Well I wasn't close enough unfortunately, whenever he had those lockups. I don't think it was especially down to how ready were his tyres. I think he did few mistakes at the beginning, which is again normal in those conditions, but yeah, I wasn't close enough to actually attempt an overtake unfortunately."

The Singapore circuit is not an easy track to overtake. While Leclerc got close several times, Perez easily beat him due to his better pace. Nonetheless, the GP was very entertaining, as the top two kept many on the edge of their seats.

Furthermore, six cars could not complete their races as many ran off into the barriers as they attempted daring overtakes. The Singapore GP totally delivered after making its comeback.