SPIELBERG, Austria -- Sergio Perez escaped unharmed after a brake failure on his Force India caused him to crash heavily on the penultimate lap of the Austrian Grand Prix.
Perez suffered the failure on the entrance to Turn 3, skidding across the gravel before he hit the barriers head on. He was running eighth when the accident happened with just one and a half laps until the chequered flag.
"It's a big shame that we retired on the penultimate lap of the race," Perez said. "I'm feeling sad for the team because we really deserved some points. Yesterday and today we have been really unlucky, and it's frustrating because we've been competitive here with our pace. The race was going really well and I thought we had the points in our pocket."
Perez was hoping to snatch seventh in the knowledge Romain Grosjean had been caught speeding in the pit lane.
"I was pushing hard to stay close to Grosjean because I knew he had a five seconds time penalty. Then, on the final lap, going into turn three, I had no brakes and went straight on. I touched the barrier and damaged the front of the car, but I'm perfectly OK. It's annoying because the team did everything right today and it's just bad luck which stopped our great recovery."