Sergio Perez regrets 'typical Monaco' mistake which brought Q3 to an early end, dashing the hopes of numerous rivals, not least Carlos Sainz.

In the final moments of Q3 - literally, as the clock showed around 30 seconds remaining - Perez lost the rear of his Red Bull in Portier, the right-hander before the tunnel - and hit the barrier. Moments later, adding insult to injury, Carlos Sainz arrived at the scene and though he tried to avoid the stricken RB18 hit it with the left-rear of his Ferrari.

With the two cars spread across the track, a very expensive traffic jam was formed, with a fuming Max Verstappen at the front.

While it was initially felt that Sainz might have ignored warnings of the Perez incident, and therefore liable to a penalty, the Spaniard had indeed hit the brakes but was unable to stop in time and the incident wasn't even noted by the stewards.

"Turn 8 has been a difficult one for me throughout the qualifying section," admitted Perez, who ended the day third quickest. "So, I was trying to anticipate and get early on throttle, but as soon as I touched the throttle, I could feel the rear tyre wasn't gripping in.

"I was playing with it a bit until I lost it," he continued. "Then I was actually surprised that Carlos hit me.

"It's a shame what happened," he added, "and I feel sorry for Carlos and for the rest of the guys. But, you know, this is Monaco."

Asked about the damage to his car, the Mexican said: "It looked bad, certainly from the rear, and then what made it worse was the hit we got from Carlos, so we have quite a bit of damage. But we will see, it should be okay for tomorrow."

"As I was entering Turn 7, on my left-hand side I saw a yellow flag coming out," explained Sainz, "and immediately, as I saw the yellow flag, I realised that the car in front of me had crashed and you don't see where he has crashed, so you enter the corner without knowing where he's going to be.

"So, I hit the brakes, tried to do the corner radius as tight as possible and just as I was going to manage to avoid him, I hit the brakes harder and managed to clip him with the back of the car.

"It would have been a pretty good save if I'd have saved it, because there was basically no time to save it," he smiled. "But it's what happens in Monaco.

"Every year in Monaco it seems to be a tradition that someone crashes in front of me or whatever," he added, "and you cannot complete the lap that is normally the most exciting around Monaco.

"Anyway, it is how it is, we start P2. I think it's a great position to start, and tomorrow anything can happen, the rain, whatever comes, comes, and we're in a good position."

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