Sergio Perez’s Cadillac was almost involved in a post-race crash at the Chinese Grand Prix.
The quick reactions of a Cadillac mechanic helped prevent the team’s car from rolling into the stationary Alpine of Pierre Gasly.
The near-miss happened after Perez took the chequered flag and parked his car in parc ferme. He had climbed out of his MAC-26 and left it to the care of his mechanics, who jacked it up onto a wheeled stand.
Moments later the car began to roll sideways towards Gasly’s A526. A mechanic working on the sister Cadillac of Valtteri Bottas spotted the imminent collision and sprinted to grab its front-left wheel, preventing the two vehicles from colliding.
Although any impact would have been at a low speed, both teams are short on spare parts at this early stage in the new season. Gasly said on Thursday he was grateful for his team mate’s quick reactions to avoid a crash in Australia due to the team’s shortage of parts.
Newcomers Cadillac have also incurred damage over the opening rounds. Perez’s car lost much of its engine cover during the sprint race in Shanghai and he tangled with Bottas during the grand prix. Bottas inspected the corner of his car Perez hit in parc ferme.
Perez took full responsibility for the first-lap contact between the pair, which caused him to spin.
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“That was fully on me,” he said. “I saw the gap and I went for it, but Valtteri didn’t have [any]where to go. I was over-optimistic.
“So full apologies on that one to Valtteri and the team. It ended up costing me [in] the race. I spun, I lost a lot of track time.”
Cadillac got both cars to the finish for the first time in their second grand prix, Perez finishing 15th and last, two places behind Bottas.
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2026 Chinese Grand Prix
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