Martin Brundle offers one-word summary of miserable Sergio Perez weekend at Canadian GP

Sergio Perez was one of the big losers at the Canadian Grand Prix last weekend. The Mexican followed up a Q1 exit with a DNF, and he also has a grid penalty to carry into Spain.

Perez has now failed to reach Q3 in each of the last three races and started from 16th for the second weekend in a row. In Monaco, he only made it a couple of corners before a race-ending collision with the two Haas cars, but in Montreal the chequered flag was coming into view.

It was lap 53 out of 71 when Perez spun into the wall after losing control of his car at turn six. He broke his rear wing in the process, crawling back to the pits before retiring.

Photo by Mert Alper Dervis/Anadolu via Getty Images

It wasn’t as if the Mexican had made a big impression in the race before that moment. Having tangled with Pierre Gasly and Daniel Ricciardo, he was running outside the points.

Martin Brundle admitted that he ‘forgot’ Perez was even racing amid the chaos. After consecutive DNFs, he’s now on a run of just four points from three races.

Red Bull announced in the lead-up to the event that the former McLaren driver had signed a new contract. But his recent form is calling that decision into question.

Martin Brundle says Max Verstappen made Sergio Perez look ‘even worse’

Writing in his column for Sky Sports F1, Brundle called it a ‘dismal’ showing. He drew a contrast with Max Verstappen’s display at the front as the Dutchman maintained a cool head to score his sixth win in nine races.

In a final one-word summary of Perez’s weekend, he simply said ‘ouch’. The 265-race veteran was one of three drivers to retire following a mistake, alongside Carlos Sainz (who collected potential Williams teammate Alex Albon) and Logan Sargeant.

“Despite all the challenges with weather, rivals, and safety cars, peerlessly emerging through it all for his 60th F1 victory was Verstappen,” Brundle wrote. “Behind him was a long story of ‘Shoulda, Woulda, Coulda’, to quote the fabulous Beverley Knight, but the reigning world champion simply did.

“That made newly resigned Sergio Perez’s dismal weekend in the other Red Bull even worse. He qualified badly, had a front wing damaging skirmish in turn 2, didn’t progress much, then span off into retirement. Ouch.”

Verstappen shares what he thought when he saw Perez in the wall

Perez’s miserable stretch of races has highlighted the threat to Red Bull’s constructors’ crown this year. While they extended their lead over Ferrari in Montreal thanks to Verstappen’s win and the Scuderia’s double DNF, Mercedes and McLaren both gained ground.

As you can see in the table below, Ferrari have still out-scored the world champions over the past three events. McLaren have made huge gains, while Mercedes are only two points behind.

Verstappen may not be able to do it all on his own. When he saw that Perez had crashed on Sunday, he knew the onus was on him to deliver the points once again.

The 26-year-old predictably defended his teammate, arguing that it was ‘very hard’ to make progress from his lowly grid slot. Much as he’s whitewashing the intra-team battle, he probably wants a bit more support from the sister car.

Perez will arrive in Barcelona at the end of next week on the back foot thanks to a three-place grid penalty for rejoining the track in an unsafe condition. The stewards determined that he should have stopped after his accident.

Journalist Andrew Benson says Red Bull have ‘gone against everything they said in the winter’ by extending his contract. The team may regret removing one of his biggest incentives so early in the season.

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