Perez offers bizarre reason for shock early Monaco exit

Sergio Perez believes a piece of advertising hoarding on the Monaco Grand Prix track was a factor in his surprise Q1 elimination.

The Mexican was dumped out in Q1 for the second straight year in Monte Carlo, and will start 16th, with Haas pair Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen disqualified following a rules breach. 

Perez only marginally improved on his final Q1 lap, and was out-qualified by Fernando Alonso and Logan Sargeant in the drop-zone with Stake pair Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu also falling. 

However, on his final lap, Perez identified two problems that cost him time - including one bizarre reason.

"I encountered a lot of traffic into Turn 6 (the hairpin), Turn 7 (Mirebeau lower) and there was a sticker laying on the apex of Turn 8 (Portier)," Perez told media including RacingNews365.

"I had to avoid all of that and ended up losing a couple of tenths - and that would have been enough to get through. 

"I was half-a-second off and it was a complete disaster, and basically the weekend is totally over because there is no chance to overtake, unfortunately."

'It hurts'

It is the second straight race Perez has failed to make Q3, with 11th last time out at Imola, where he recovered to eighth place.

On what has been a troubled weekend for the team, he felt as those it was "finding the light" in FP3 before the struggles returned.

"This morning we were finding the light, I was P5, we made some more changes," he said.

"But unfortunately, they were not enough to come through and it hurts a lot because putting a normal lap in would have been enough, but with the traffic we encountered, it was really difficult."