Sergio Perez said “having these errors is extremely painful” after he recorded his second retirement of the season in Montreal.
The early exit followed a disappointing Saturday when Perez lost the car in qualifying and was unable to reverse it back out of the wall he had hit.
This meant he started Sunday’s race in P13 and after making some progress in the early laps, he was forced to retire on lap 7 with a suspected gearbox issue.
Speaking after the race, the Mexican said he believed the car had the pace to finish high up in the points but the retirement made it “a very disappointing day.”
“The reliability issue again,” he replied when asked by Sky Sports F1 what went wrong. “It felt like I lost drive and got it stuck in gear. I don’t know what really happened. A very disappointing day to go away with zero points from a weekend that hasn’t been perfect but I still believe that we were on track for a result.
“Having these errors is extremely painful.”
🟨 VSC 🟨 NOOOOO! 😫 Checo has an issue and is forced to stop on track. Max pits under the virtual safety car and rejoins in P3 #CanadianGP 🇨🇦 #F1 pic.twitter.com/PfOIaOskyY
— Oracle Red Bull Racing (@redbullracing) June 19, 2022
The issue meant Perez pulled alongside Max Verstappen in the number of mechanical issues they have suffered this season but the Dutchman was able to extend his lead at the top of the Drivers’ Standings to 46 points.
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner was asked if it was now or never for Perez to make a push for the title but the 48-year-old remarked there was a long way to go in the season yet.
“We’ve seen the swing in the championship moves around so much,” Horner told Sky Sports F1. “I mean, he’s now unfortunately got the same amount of mechanical failures that Max has had and we need to understand that and address that but it’s it’s too soon to write anybody off.
“We’re not even near the halfway point yet so [there is] still a lot of racing to go.”
With Silverstone up next, Horner said that both Ferrari and Mercedes have the chance to do well at a track that suits them.
“You think that going there [Silverstone] like Barcelona is going to be a good track for them [Ferrari].
“Mercedes’ pace at the end of the race there was very strong as well and so they could well be a factor at that race.
“I’m hearing there’s a few upgrades coming in maybe on the Ferrari as well for that race so it’s going to be…
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