Sergio Perez points 'aggressive' finger of blame for sprint qualifying crash

Sergio Perez has blamed a violent bottoming-out of his Cadillac for the crash that wrecked his lap during sprint qualifying at the Singapore Grand Prix.

The Mexican lost control in the middle of Turn 4 and ploughed into a wall, damaging his front wing and forcing a trip back to the pits for repairs, albeit leaving debris strewn across the track, which caused a red flag.

Perez eventually set a time of one minute 36.760s, leaving him down in 20th for the start of Saturday's sprint, ahead of only team-mate Valtteri Bottas and Carlos Sainz in his Williams.

Explaining what happened, Perez said the sudden loss of ride height caught him out at a point in the lap where there was no margin for error.

"Basically, I was in the middle of turn four," said Perez. "Obviously, every lap counts a lot in sprint qualifying for a street race.

"I pushed a lot, and in the middle of the corner, the car bottomed out quite aggressively, and I couldn't control it.

"I avoided the corner, but I ended up in the wall, damaging my front wing. I had to come back to the pits and fix it. It was not an ideal quali."

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Perez looking for understanding

Despite the crash, Perez suggested the underlying pace was not far off what Cadillac needed around the Marina Bay Street Circuit, with the team still able to salvage a representative lap once repairs were completed.

Asked about his approach heading into the sprint race itself, Perez struck a measured tone.

"It's a difficult one," he said. "We are not too far from where we should be. We still managed to get a good lap afterwards.

"For tomorrow, I think it's mainly understanding and trying to get a better car for the race."