Sergio Perez was beyond furious with himself for crashing out of Monaco Grand Prix qualifying in Q1, an error that makes his 2023 Formula 1 world championship hopes look even more remote given Red Bull team-mate Max Verstappen’s pole.
Last year’s Monaco GP winner slewed into the Sainte Devote barrier midway through the opening part of qualifying, and was quickly demoted to last on the starting grid.
“It’s an unbelievable day. I cannot believe what I’ve done,” said Perez.
“It just caught me by surprise. Just getting that rear out of shape, especially really late into the corner. That really caught me out.
“It’s a way that we were trying to get a laptime out of it, but it just went over the limit and I became a passenger.
“There was nothing else I could do because it was really late in the corner – I could not cut the corner or go out of the corner.”
Asked by The Race if he was particularly surprised by the manner in which the car slid given he would have been leaving a degree of margin as this was a banker lap, Perez admitted “it came around as a big surprise” but then resumed his tirade at himself.