Perez's odd explanation for triple-whammy track limits penalty

While Red Bull teammate Max Verstappen dominated the race to record his 14th win from 17 grands prix this season, Perez had another shocker as he finished 10th. 

The Mexican was hit with three five-second time penalties for exceeding track limits on six occasions during the 57-lap race. 

Track limits had been a major talking point throughout the weekend in Qatar, with Perez also having his fastest lap of qualifying deleted for the same offence. 

After Sunday’s race, the Mexican explained that being too far down in his cockpit made visibility difficult. 

"Track limits, to be honest, it was hard for me inside the car to judge them,” Perez told Sky. 

“But it was the same for everybody so I should’ve done a better job.”

When asked why he found it so tough, Perez replied: “I had the same in Austria, I’m sitting too low in the car. 

“Probably that made things a bit harder. When they changed it at the last minute, I should’ve gone up.”

Perez, whose performances have come under intense scrutiny of late, admitted his second messy weekend in a row “wasn’t ideal”. 

“It was a really difficult afternoon,” he explained. “Starting on the hard really complicated things for us. 

“Especially with the Safety Car, we couldn’t warm up the tyre. We ended up losing positions. We couldn’t make progress quickly enough.

“It just meant we could not progress as much as we should have.”

He added: “I couldn’t get temperature in the tyre. 

“By the time I did, we had to stop with the mandatory pit stops. 

“So it wasn’t an ideal race, it was a very difficult one. Not just the race, the whole weekend in all, so plenty to look at."