Perez’s race will go down as a DNF but it was one of the more eventful shockers in F1 history.
While Max Verstappen claimed victory and single-handedly wrapped up the constructors’ championship for Red Bull with six races left in the season, Perez was floundering way behind him.
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The Mexican looked out of sorts from the start, bumping into Lewis Hamilton in the early stages before attempting an unrealistic overtake on Kevin Magnussen, sending his Haas spinning across the track.
All in all, Perez has his front wing replaced twice and copped two time penalties for a Safety Car infringement and hitting Magnussen in a day to forget.
In a bizarre situation, Red Bull unretired Perez so he could serve his time penalties and not have them carry over to the next race in Qatar. He was then retired from the race for a second time.
A particularly painful moment for Perez came when he was sitting in his Red Bull in the car watching Verstappen whiz past to complete a pit stop en route to victory.
The camera operator who captured the moment couldn’t have summed up the contrast in fortunes between the two Red Bull teammates better.
Watching a replay of Perez colliding with Magnussen in the podium warm down room, Piastri said “ah nice”, while Lando Norris cheekily quipped, “Interesting”.
Perez won two races in Saudi Arabia and Azerbaijan at the start of the season, but his form and confidence has deserted him as the season has gone on.
While Verstappen notched up a 13th win of the season and Red Bull celebrated, you’d imagine the celebratory beers wouldn’t have tasted quite as good for Perez.
He is second in the drivers’ standings, 177 points behind Verstappen and 33 points ahead of Lewis Hamilton in third.
The 33-year-old is contracted with Red Bull until the end of the 2024 season, but the pressure is mounting on him to rediscover his best form quickly.
AlphaTauri announced Daniel Ricciardo and Yuki Tsunoda will drive for Red Bull’s feeder team next year, leaving Kiwi youngster Liam Lawson without a full-time seat despite impressing while filling in for the injured Ricciardo.
Red Bull has shown in the past that contracts don’t mean much and Perez won’t want too many more shockers like he had in Japan, otherwise he might become the latest No. 2 Red Bull driver to fall by the wayside.