Sergio Perez’s poor performance kept on going at the Canadian Grand Prix on Sunday as the Mexican driver could only manage a discouraging sixth place at the Circuit de Gilles-Villeneuve.
The Red Bull driver once again missed qualifying on Saturday, making it his third straight Grand Prix to forget. After being disqualified in qualifying round two, the Mexican started Sunday’s race from position twelve, right behind Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc.
Perez’s pace had been quite alarming yet he was unable to match both Ferrari drivers. He managed to get up to sixth place but was unable to move any further, resulting in his second finish outside the top five in all three previous races.
Everything seems to be going wrong for Perez since he finished second in Miami; he is currently 69 points behind teammate Max Verstappen in the Drivers’ Championship.
His chances of winning the championship are slim at best, and if he performs poorly at the Austrian Grand Prix coming up this weekend, he may find himself out of contention altogether. He now runs the risk of sliding to third in the standings after finishing P16, P4, and P6 in the previous three races.
Fernando Alonso is only nine points behind the Mexican heading to the Red Bull home race, which is anticipated to be a crucial one for Checo.
Perez stated that he “couldn’t recover the grip” he had before the race encountered its only Safety Car on Lap 13, which contributed to the loss of speed on Sunday being a “surprise.” He freely acknowledged this.
He isn’t “concerned” about where he stands in the championship despite his continued decline, mostly because his major concern is the reason why his form has declined so sharply.
“Today was a bit of a surprise,” Perez said after finishing P6. “We just didn’t have the pace… It was looking good on the hard tyre initially but once the safety car came in I couldn’t recover the grip on that tyre and we didn’t have the pace on the medium.
“It is important we take time to understand the weekend because this race, in particular, has been poor in pace and we need to get on top of it.
“I have the confidence in myself and know what I can do but today we were not good. Right now, I am more concerned about my drop in performance than my place in the championship because the pace is just not there.
“You never have no pressure on you, it has been a difficult period but I am here to perform and I need to do that in the next few races.”
