Sergio Perez warns he could be forced to miss the British Grand Prix

Sergio Perez suffered a miserable weekend at the Canadian Grand Prix.

Red Bull’s Sergio Perez sustained a neck injury in the aftermath of his qualifying crash at the Canadian Grand Prix.

The Mexican locked up going into Turn Three in Montreal in wet conditions, and was a passenger as he slid across the grass and straight into the barrier.

He would start the race 13th as a result after the track dried out towards the end of Q2, and later retired from the grand prix with a reliability issue.

After the weekend, he noticed a contracture he had suffered as a result of the crash, meaning that his neck muscles had tightened up.

“The start of the week is always hard after such a bad day but I’m fine, recovering from my neck because I have a strong contracture after the crash, which I didn’t feel,” Perez told Fox Sports.

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“It hurt a lot but in general, everything was fine.

“Right now I am preparing for the strong contracture I had in my neck and I can’t exercise, I am in pure neck therapy to be 100 percent at Silverstone. 

“Each race works differently because your body is in a different state all the time, there are times that you have to push more cardio, strength or resistance. So, you always work different things.”

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As for what put him out of the running on Sunday, Perez confirmed that he had suffered a gearbox failure.

“It was the gearbox,” he stated. 

“In fact, it was already in its last race, it was very close to the limit and unfortunately it failed. 

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“They are things that are difficult to prevent, more so on a track like Canada where there are many bumps. 

“These things happen, unfortunately.”

Over the course of a championship season, as Ferrari can testify from recent years, reliability issues need to be kept at a minimum. 

“It is important to solve these issues that are always different for us, each reliability issue has been different during the year, so we have to continue working,” added Perez.

“It is a point that will decide the championship – without a doubt these DNFs are very expensive at this point of the championship.”

The 32-year-old is now 46 points adrift of championship leader Max Verstappen after the Dutchman took out his sixth win of the year last weekend, narrowly beating Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz.