Perez expects to race in Canada

The Sauber driver sustained concussion and bruising when he had a high-speed, side-on impact with the barriers at the chicane in Q3, and spent two nights in Princess Grace hospital under observation.

"I feel okay. I have little bit of pain in my leg and in my neck, but this comes from muscles and is nothing to worry about," said Perez.

"On Sunday I still felt a bit dizzy but that is all. Thank God I'm healthy and I'm looking forward to being back in the car soon.

"They treated me very well in the hospital. I want to thank the staff for this, and also want to thank everyone else who was worrying about me - the people from the team who came to see me and other visitors as well. My family has also been with me. I want to say thank you for all the messages I received. I'm very grateful for all the support and feel sorry for not having replied to all of the messages. There were so many and my phone very quickly ran out of battery."

Asked if he was confident he would be fit for the next race, Perez replied: "yes, I'm pretty sure I will be driving in Montreal," and when asked about his plans for the coming days, he added: "very simple - [doing] everything to make sure I can drive in Canada."

Perez said his memory of what happened in qualifying had still not quite returned.

"I remember how I started Q3 and I also remember some of the accident," he said. "For the time being I am missing some memories about what happened after the first impact and the rescue procedures.

"I don't really know what caused the accident. My race engineer told me there was no problem with the car. I can only guess that I might have been a bit off-line or braked on a bump."