Sergio Perez has been handed a five-place grid penalty for causing the crash which marred the end of today's Canadian Grand Prix.

Whilst it was initially thought that the accident with Sergio Perez was due to an over exuberant move by Felipe Massa, who was on fresher rubber and had previously been 'released' by his Williams teammate thereby allowing him to mount a late assault on the leaders. However, the Stewards subsequently ruled that it was in fact the Mexican who was to blame.

Having received a report from the Race Director, heard from both team representatives and examined video evidence, the Stewards ruled that Perez "changed his racing line which caused the impact with car 19 (Massa) in Turn 1", an incident as defined by Article 16.1 of the FIA Formula One Sporting Regulations.

The Mexican was subsequently handed a five place grid penalty for the forthcoming Austrian Grand Prix.

Following the accident both drivers extricated themselves from their cars and were immediately transferred to the medical centre for preliminary checks. The results of these checks were entirely positive. However as a purely precautionary measure they were both transferred to Sacre Coeur hospital in Montreal for further examination. Both of them were subsequently discharged.

"On the final lap I was defending my position going into turn one when I suddenly got hit from behind," said Perez. "It was a big impact, but I am okay. I'm really sad for the team because we had an amazing race today and the one-stop strategy was working perfectly.

"It was not easy in the final laps and I was pushing hard to try and get ahead of Nico for the lead. Daniel managed to get ahead of me when I had an electrical issue with my car, but I managed to reset the system for the final couple of laps. The podium was possible today and I'm just very disappointed for the points we have lost."

"I was one of the quickest guys on the track, so we lost many points today," added Massa. "I'm happy that I'm here with no problems but I'm so disappointed for what happened with Perez. I think maybe we could even have fought for victory today. But it shows we have a good car and I'm convinced the next race will be better."

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Chris Balfe