Sergio Perez thinks he pushed a bit too hard on his first Qualifying run in Q3. 

The Monaco Grand Prix winner had a brief scare in Q3 as his car initially failed to fire up, causing his Red Bull team to release him behind teammate Max Verstappen which crucially meant that neither driver would have a tow for their final runs. 

The lack of a tow had some effect as although Perez qualified second on the grid, he was still under three tenths down on pole sitter Charles Leclerc. 

After the session, Perez stated that he had pushed a little bit too hard on his first run, saying he was lucky to complete the lap after hitting the wall twice.

"When you get to Q3, run one is when you go balls out. And it was a little bit too much. I hit the wall a couple of times. Luckily, we managed to survive, which is the key really here. But it was not an ideal qualifying, because at the end we just had a problem with the engine. We couldn't turn it on."

"And that meant I was basically on my own, and that's very powerful around here. Who knows if it was enough for pole, but certainly, we lost a few tenths, but I think Charles had a very good lap. I think tomorrow it's a very long race ahead. So we just have to make sure we are there. It's a very long race, you know. At any point, you can make a mistake. And that's it."

When asked about why he was let out of the pits so late, Perez thinks a combination of the car not initially starting and a miscommunication between driver and team caused the late departure from the pits.

"I need to speak back to the guys. Just the car wouldn't turn on. So I think there was a miscommunication. But yeah, we just lost too many seconds and got all in a bit of a rush because it was tough getting there to make the lap."