Perez apologises for “unacceptable” Monaco GP: “I can’t afford another zero”

Perez endured a miserable race in Monaco as he was lapped twice by Red Bull teammate Max Verstappen.

The Mexican’s weekend was curtailed by a shunt in Q1, leaving him forced to start from the back of the grid.

An early pit stop looked like it was going to be a masterstroke with Perez setting a series of fastest laps.

However, with overtaking so difficult in Monaco, Perez was unable to make any further progress.

“We paid the price for my mistake and that's been very costly," Perez said. "I just have to apologise to my whole team because it is unacceptable to have this kind of mistake.

“I have to move on, learn from it, and I cannot afford another zero in the championship. It was going really well. Unfortunately, I hit the traffic fairly early and that put us back to our original position. Then the rain came, we were one of the last ones to pit.

“Then I clipped the wall and it was just all a mess. I broke my front wing with Magnussen who just broke [deep] out of the chicane and it just went bad. When you are in those positions, you always have to risk a lot."

Team boss Christian Horner described it as "one of those weekends".

“We took a really aggressive strategy. Was stopped on lap one and you could see his pace in free air and how much the others were saving. He actually got back within a pit window of Esteban Ocon, and then [Logan] Sargeant and the slow cars were starting to struggle and, of course, you can't overtake.

“Then he got involved in a kerfuffle with [George] Russell and damaged the front wing. It was just one of those weekends where nothing went his way. He had a massive save in the swimming pool, so he probably needed a new pair of underwear after that.

“It's just been one of those weekends for him where [he should] turn the page and I would think, for him, the sooner he can get to Barcelona, the better."