Perez confident form will return after second consecutive DNF on ‘very tough weekend’ in Canada

For the second race in a row Sergio Perez failed to finish the Grand Prix in Canada – and picked up a grid penalty for the next round in Spain in the process – but the Mexican remains steadfastly confident he'll soon be back to top form.

In a repeat of his fortunes from last time out in Monaco, Perez was eliminated in Q1 of Saturday’s qualifying session, leaving him down in P16 on the grid.

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From there the Red Bull driver made contact with the Alpine of Pierre Gasly on the opening lap and subsequently struggled to make further ground.

Things only got worse for Perez when he spun off on Lap 53 of 70 and damaged his rear wing, before limping back to the pit lane to retire from the running.

He was later summoned to the stewards and hit with a three-place grid drop for the upcoming Spanish Grand Prix after being deemed to have driven back to the pits with a "significantly damaged" car, while Red Bull were also fined €25,000 over the incident.

Reflecting on his race after jumping out of the RB20 – and prior to receiving his penalty – the 34-year-old explained: “I think I had a lot of damage early on in the race with the front wing. I guess Pierre just didn’t see me there, because he just came to the inside and I was there.

“Unfortunately that meant that I picked up some damage for the first stint, then we changed it and we seemed to pick up some more momentum. Then later on there was also a contact with Daniel [Ricciardo] in the same corner, which made me lose a little bit of front-end.

READ MORE: Verstappen hails team for staying calm in ‘crazy race’ as he takes victory in eventful Canadian GP

“And then I did a mistake going into Turn 6, I just touched the wet patch and once you do that it’s really game over, and unfortunately that’s what happened. Very tough weekend, but I think there is a long season ahead and we will be back to our form that we had earlier.”

Perez had started the 2024 campaign off in promising style, finishing four of the five opening races on the podium which included three one-two results for Red Bull. However, the past two weekends have not yielded success for the six-time race winner.

Quizzed on how frustrating this has been, Perez responded: “Yeah, we lost some momentum obviously in the season, but I’m also very positive that there is a long season ahead and that we will get our form back.

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“I will be working really hard in the coming weeks with the team to make sure that we are back to that form.”