Nico Hulkenberg forced to speak out after offending Mexican fans with Sergio Perez comment
Nico Hulkenberg issued an apology after qualifying in Melbourne, despite being impeded by Sergio Perez on track.
Nico Hulkenberg has issued an apology to Sergio Perez fans after he was accused of using a Mexican stereotype to poke fun at the Red Bull driver at the Australian Grand Prix. After an on-track incident during qualifying, the Haas driver joked that his counterpart had ‘taken a Mexican siesta’.
The incident in question happened during qualifying for the Australian GP with Perez impeding Hulkenberg on a flying lap in Q1. The German racer was eventually eliminated in that part of the session, while Perez went on to qualify in third place behind team-mate and polesitter Max Verstappen, and eventual race winner Carlos Sainz.
After an investigation from the stewards, Perez was handed a three-place grid penalty, dropping him to P6 for the race. Offering his thoughts on the incident, Hulkenberg said: “My lap wasn’t good. We’re not fast enough,” before joking: “I think he took a Mexican siesta.”
This comment, poking fun at the tradition of taking a short early afternoon nap to recoup, didn’t go down with a portion of Perez’s fanbase, who accused Hulkenberg of using Mexican stereotypes to target the Red Bull driver.
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Hulkenberg eventually responded by posting to his Instagram story, overlaying a picture of himself and Perez with the text: “Read some comments this morning about a quote from yesterday after quali.
“To all my Mexican friends, I said this with a twinkle in the eye… I am a big fan of siestas (when they are not done on track) and no harm was meant. P.S. I called for no penalty with the stewards as it wasn’t Checo’s fault. He got no warning on the radio.”
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While his Q1 elimination looked to have ended Hulkenberg’s chances of securing back-to-back point-scoring finishes, the veteran racer benefitted from a wave of retirements to take the chequered flag in P9. Even more encouraging was that his team-mate, Kevin Magnussen, completed a double points finish for Haas, finishing in P10.
Perez, meanwhile, was hampered by his P6 starting grid position, only making up ground on one driver that started ahead of him, and that driver was his team-mate Verstappen, who was forced to retire with a terminal rear brake issue on the fourth lap of the race. That result meant that his run of successive P2 finishes came to an end in Melbourne.