Showing the grit and determination expected of a championship contender, Perez soon found himself in the top 10, flying past his opponents with well-calculated overtakes and an unrelenting hunger to finish as highly as possible.
The Mexican driver started his race from P13, a spot which he is not accustomed to but ultimately deserved following an unexpected crash in Q2 on Saturday.
Red Bull racing driver Sergio Perez is unhappy with his finish in the Canadian GP
Perez started from P13 but had already made up three places by the ninth lap
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With Perez looking prime to overtake the McLaren in front of him, tragedy struck when his Honda power unit began to fail him. The Mexican driver began to panic and called on the mechanics from the team radio.“I've lost the engine man, I'm stuck in gear.” an obviously stressed Perez said.
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The incident forced the deployment on the virtual safety car and Max Verstappen soon went in for a pit stop to ensure that his car was in top shape.
Speaking after the race, Perez revealed how the DNF (Did not finish) is likely going to shape his season, as it is a painful blow to his championship charge."A zero when you’re fighting for the championship is very costly, it’s still a very long championship, and today hurts a lot so I want to forget about today." Perez said.
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What happened?
Former F1 racer and current Red Bull team advisor Helmut Marko confirmed the fear that it was the gearbox of the RB18 that was faulty and the Austrian also posited that it was likely the crash suffered in qualifying that caused the issue.
Marko Helmut thinks it was the crash in qualifying that led to engine failure at the Canada GP
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Speaking to Austrian publication ORF, Helmut said,"The gearbox was at the end of its life, but it should have held. We suspect it could also be a consequence of Saturday's accident, although he didn't hit anything directly with the gearbox.” Helmut said.
