Perez: “Raikkonen didn't give me enough space and we touched each other”

Sergio Perez believes his crash with Kimi Raikkonen in the closing stages of the Monaco Grand Prix could have been avoided if the Lotus driver had given him space.

Perez tried to pass the Finn for fifth place in the chicane after successfully pulling off a pass on Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button in the previous laps, but the two drivers made contact.

Raikkonen suffered a left rear puncture and was forced to pit, although he recovered to finish 10th, while Perez retired with brake problems with just a few laps to go.

He believes the collision was avoidable if the 2007 world champion had offered him the same space as Alonso and Button previously.

“The move on Raikkonen was risky,” Perez admitted. “But I passed Jenson, I passed Fernando in the same place. Jenson passed me in the same place.”

“So, at the end of the day you have to give some space. Kimi didn't give me all the space I needed, there was nothing I could do to avoid it. If anyone could have avoided the accident it was Kimi.”

“At the end of the day, it doesn't matter if you're aggressive or not if they don't give you space.”

His teammate Button finished in sixth position.

“The end result is OK, we got some good points,” Button said. “It's a shame that we couldn't get both cars into the points.”

“We are positive about the car's performance here. We don't know why the cars in front were so slow today, I don't know why.”