Nightmare in Monaco for Sergio Pérez: Everything went wrong

Nicknamed the king of the streets, Sergio Pérez arrived in Monaco with high hopes. Having won in Jeddah and Baku this season, and being the defending champion of the Monaco Grand Prix, the Mexican had every reason to believe that the Principality would be the circuit that would allow him to close the gap on his teammate in the driver’s championship. However, in the end, Pérez arrived in Monaco with a 14-point deficit and conceded 39 points to his teammate before leaving the circuit.

Perez’s nightmare weekend started with the qualifying session. Being slightly below his garage mate since the Free Practice sessions, the former Racing Point driver made a momentary lapse of concentration during Q1 and crashed into the barriers at Sainte-Dévote, damaging both left suspensions. Crashing on a Saturday is particularly unfortunate in Monaco, a circuit where overtaking is more challenging than any other on the calendar. As a result, the Red Bull driver was condemned to start the Grand Prix on Sunday from the last position, while his teammate took off from pole position. Two cars from the same team, but with drastically different situations.

Stopping very early in the race, Pérez found himself stuck behind Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin for a long time. Humiliated by being lapped by Verstappen halfway through the race, the Dutchman was actually doing a favor for his teammate. Indeed, by letting Verstappen through, Stroll left the door open for Pérez to overtake him. The Mexican driver attempted to pass the Canadian on the outside of the chicane. The wheels of both drivers made contact and lifted a few centimeters in the air. Back on the tarmac, frustrated with being the runner-up in the championship, Pérez decided to cut the corner to overtake Stroll, feeling that the latter had not given him enough space. Surprisingly, the race direction did not intervene in this incident.

The race management didn’t need to obstruct Red Bull’s driver’s progress, he was going to shoot himself in the foot by colliding with the back of Magnussen’s car. Breaking his front wing, Perez’s overtakes were abruptly erased by this incident. The latter emerged from the pitlane once again at the back of the pack.

Despite the arrival of menacing clouds in the Monegasque sky, the rain was not beneficial for Pérez, who played the role of a test subject for Verstappen when Red Bull asked him to switch to the new wet weather tires. Struggling, the Mexican driver had a little scare in the Swimming Pool complex and narrowly avoided a serious mistake before being called back to the pit stop and finishing the race in a distant 16th position.

It was a very concise Sergio Pérez who spoke about his poor performance: (e) This is probably one of my worst weekends in Formula 1. Everything went wrong and we paid the price for it.

On lands that have favored him in the past, Pérez showed himself far from Verstappen’s level on the Rock. While his teammate seemed untouchable, the driver sporting the number 11 probably made the same number of mistakes. This is exactly the kind of weekend that Perez should not replicate if he truly wants to establish himself as a title contender. Fortunately for him, there is still a long season ahead to redeem himself.