Thanks! Yup, the backmarkers, especially Yuki, impeding Lando made it possible for Perez to catch up. I have read on Reddit that Yuki ignored like 17 blue flags and 3 requests from his engineer before letting Lando through. He let Perez through after 5 blue flags and 1 request. The standard is supposed to be 3 flags and maybe one request. Drivers have been penalised in the past for ignoring the standard.
Some are seeing a conspiracy here (it’s Reddit after all) but I think it was just Yuki’s inexperience. He’s very obstinate and difficult to manage. Don’t know if McLaren will file an official complaint and ask for a penalty or if drivers/team principals will just have a quiet word with each other about the issue. But something will happen.
Also while blue flags were being shown, Lando was still pretty far away from yuki. He did not even have drs on yuki when the blue flags were out. For large parts of the lap, it seemed that Lando was not getting any closer to yuki and I can understand yuki not wanting to slow down and move aside for a car that is more than a second behind him
Thanks! Yup, the backmarkers, especially Yuki, impeding Lando made it possible for Perez to catch up. I have read on Reddit that Yuki ignored like 17 blue flags and 3 requests from his engineer before letting Lando through. He let Perez through after 5 blue flags and 1 request. The standard is supposed to be 3 flags and maybe one request. Drivers have been penalised in the past for ignoring the standard.
Some are seeing a conspiracy here (it’s Reddit after all) but I think it was just Yuki’s inexperience. He’s very obstinate and difficult to manage. Don’t know if McLaren will file an official complaint and ask for a penalty or if drivers/team principals will just have a quiet word with each other about the issue. But something will happen.
Also while blue flags were being shown, Lando was still pretty far away from yuki. He did not even have drs on yuki when the blue flags were out. For large parts of the lap, it seemed that Lando was not getting any closer to yuki and I can understand yuki not wanting to slow down and move aside for a car that is more than a second behind him