Sergio Perez expressed shock at the scale of the Formula 1 Singapore Grand Prix, which he called a “complete disaster” for Red Bull.

After qualifying in 13th place, Perez made a strong start at Marina Bay and climbed to 10th, but was stuck behind Franco Colapinto’s Williams in ninth, before joining the DRS pack led by Fernando Alonso and Charles Leclerc in chasing Nico Hulkenberg for sixth.

With a strong cut, Perez eventually finished 10th, meaning he has scored just 41 points in the 12 races since Miami as Red Bull continued to lose ground to McLaren in the constructors’ standings, who have taken 40 points to Red Bull’s 19, with Max Verstappen finishing second. Perez felt his race was ruined by being stuck behind other cars, and it became a “nightmare”.

“We had a pretty good first lap, but unfortunately we didn’t take advantage of it and Carlos passed us,” he told the media.

“Because it was so difficult to overtake today, we really needed to move a little bit forward and being behind Nico was really tough – being behind all the way through the race was really devastating. It hurt.

“Unfortunately, after passing three cars on the grid, the race became more difficult.

“It was frustrating and I think we missed a bit of the strategy. I struggled quite a bit with the bounce and balance, it was unstable, I had real problems with it.

“It’s a shame we qualified so far back and we know what we did wrong – so we had to go back to Austin, because the pace would have been much better on a standard track.”