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Sergio Perez has come under criticism from former teammate and world champion Jenson Button for a poor showing in the 2023 F1 Canadian Grand Prix.
The Mexican has been out of form in the last three races and has found it hard to perform well in qualifying. In the last three races, he has been unable to reach even Q3 while his teammate, Max Verstappen, has put the car in the pole position.
The race in Canada was more or less the same story as Perez had another shocker of a session in qualifying. He was eliminated in Q2 and was going to start the race outside of the top 10.
The 33-year-old was expected to harness the speed of the Red Bull and at least secure a podium finish. None of this happened as the Mexican didn't really have the speed to compete with the likes of Ferrari and Mercedes drivers. He ended up finishing the race in P6 and was criticized by Jenson Button for the way the entire weekend unfolded, Disappointed at Sergio's weekend, the 43-year-old said:
"His team-mate won the race and led every lap. I expected more. The first lap was fun. Checo is really good at fighting through the field, he's one of the best at that, but we didn't get that today. He was on a different tyre strategy but the Ferraris beat him by a big margin."
He added:
"He stopped and did the fastest lap of the race but was already 10 seconds behind the Ferraris at that point. It was a little bit of a surprise and he had a very quiet race for Checo."
Sergio Perez's teammate ends up winning the race comfortably
Sergio Perez's teammate Max Verstappen did not face too many issues as he was able to win the race in a somewhat straightforward manner. Talking to Jenson Button after the race, the 25-year-old Red Bull driver congratulated the team on the 100th race win in F1. He said:
"Very happy right now. It wasn't a very straightforward race, because the tyres weren't really getting in their window. It was very cold today compared to Friday and we were sliding around quite a bit. To win the 100 Grand Prix for the team is incredible."
Sergio Perez now finds himself 69 points behind Max Verstappen in the championship and this kind of gap will be hard to bridge for the Mexican.
