Perez's bodyguard shot during car robbery attempt in Mexico

According to local media in Mexico, an incident occurred in the early hours of Saturday morning in Guadalajara - Perez’s home city - that saw robbers attempt to seize a vehicle.

A bodyguard of Antonio Perez, the brother of Sergio, was wounded by a gunshot after responding to the robbery attempt of a Jeep Wrangler. It is not confirmed if Perez’s brother was in the vehicle.

“One of the two bodyguards was driving behind this vehicle who noticed the attempted robbery without the thieves noticing," said Mexican newspaper El Informador.

“The bodyguard pulled his weapon from him, and an exchange of shots occurred between the robbers and the guards, in which one of them was injured in the face. The criminals got into a black Chevrolet car and fled the scene.”

Asked about the incident following qualifying for the Monaco Grand Prix, Perez confirmed the details of the story and revealed that the bodyguard was in a good condition.

“Basically they tried to rob the car of my security, and they hurt one of my security guys with one shot,” Perez said.

“But they basically tried to rob the car, and nothing else going on. He is in a good condition. The police got the robbers.

“My family is good, thank you.”

The police in Guadalajara managed to find the black Chevrolet car used by the thieves to flee the scene and arrest two people.

Perez qualified ninth on Saturday in Monaco after a difficult final session that saw him hit traffic on his final lap.

“It was a disaster,” Perez said.

“We changed our approach, we were making good progress through qualifying, and in Q2, we did a good step.

“But the track was cooling down, and we changed our approach into Q3, run one, which I had no front end at all. They were very cold, the tyres.

“Then on the second attempt, the lap was going well until I hit a lot of traffic. And I basically lost a lot of lap time going through that.”