JUNE 10, 2011

De la Rosa replaces Perez for Montreal GP

Pedro de la Rosa will replace Sergio Perez in the Sauber for the rest of the weekend after the Mexican felt dizzy during the morning free practice session.

Pedro de la Rosa, Hungarian GP 2010
© The Cahier Archive

Sergio Perez, despite being passed fit to drive in the Canadian Grand Prix by FIA medical staff, did not feel 100% after the first session of free practice this morning, in which the Sauber driver set 11th fastest time.

After suffering a mild concussion in qualifying that forced him to miss the Monaco Grand Prix, doctors cleared Perez to compete in this weekend's Canadian Grand Prix.

During Friday's first free practice session Perez complained of dizziness and frantic talks took place to have McLaren test driver De la Rosa drive for the Swiss team.

Sergio Perez said, "Of course I wanted to drive and I had no doubt I was alright. But apparently this is unfortunately not the case. I am deeply disappointed. I spoke to the team after the session and told them that I'm not a hundred per cent fit. I only want to drive when I'm a hundred per cent well. I need some more time to recover."

De la Rosa drove for Sauber last year alongside Kamui Kobayashi, before being dropped late in the year after the Italian Grand Prix in favour of Nick Heidfeld, when the team felt it needed a known yardstick to assess Kobayashi.

Sauber Team Principal, Peter Sauber said, "This development hit us by surprise, because Sergio underwent thorough medical checks, first in the hospital in Monaco, then in a hospital in Z ‚ rich, and finally, the FIA doctors gave him the green light this Thursday in Montreal. Nobody could have foreseen that he would feel unwell. Maybe we are being overly cautious, but when it's about the health of our drivers we take zero risks. We want to thank Pedro de la Rosa and McLaren for helping us out in this situation."