Sergio Perez out of Canadian Grand Prix as Red Bull driver’s dreadful weekend ends early

Sergio Perez has retired from the Canadian Grand Prix after peeling off with mechanical troubles in the early stages. His car came to a rest at turn eight, bringing out the virtual safety car as the car was wheeled away.

Speaking on team radio, Perez said: “I’ve lost the engine man, I’m stuck in gear.” The VSC led to a flurry of pitlane activity with Max Verstappen coming in for an early stop. 

Reacting to Perez’s retirement, Red Bull boss Christian Horner said the team believes the issue was a gearbox failure.

He said: “He’s obviously lost drive. We think it’s a gearbox issue but obviously we needed the car back.

“Really disappointing for Checo because he could have been very quick out there today.”

When asked on whether they were worried the failure could develop on Verstappen’s car, Horner said: “Of course it’s always a concern, but we’ve just got to get our head down and do our best with Max. He’s obviously on a different strategy to the two cars ahead so it will be interesting to see how that pans out.”

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It’s Red Bull’s fourth mechanical failure of the season and the second for Perez. The Mexican was forced out at the Bahrain Grand Prix as part of a double DNF for the team in the opening race of the season. 

Verstappen has also struggled with failures this season as he was forced out in Sakhir and at the Australian Grand Prix. Reliability is playing an important part this season as teams are still trying to get on top of the new regulations. 

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Ferrari have suffered their own issue with Charles Leclerc being forced out of two of the last three races. Later on in the race, Mick Schumacher also retired from mechanical issues in the same spot. 

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