Sergio Perez has apologised to Red Bull after missing out on a podium finish at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix on Sunday.
Having successfully qualified on the front row at Imola, Perez dropped to third and behind team-mate Max Verstappen on the opening lap of the race.
He was then penalised for overtaking during a Safety Car period, as he re-took two positions he lost due to a mistake.
Following the mid-race restart at the end of a red flag period, Perez was running in fourth before spinning off, leaving him out of the points at the chequered flag.
“I’m very, very sorry first of all to my team, because I wasn’t there,” Perez said. “Very poor conditions meant I struggled to put any temperature into my tyres.
“The car was very difficult to drive. Even under the safety car, I went off, came back [on] and got the penalty for that which meant I lost the position to Norris.
“That made things tricky. Then at the end I think we should have finished on the podium but unfortunately I did that mistake and that was very costly.
“We just have to learn from them, see what we could have done better and understand what was the issue. Basically, I wasn’t able to put any temperature [in the tyres].”
Perez currently sits eighth in the Drivers’ Championship after the opening two rounds, having scored 10 points at the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix last month.
