Sergio Perez flew back to Mexico without telling his team before testing positive for Covid-19

Sergio Perez, the first Formula 1 driver to test positive for Covid-19, flew back to Mexico without telling his team following last month’s Hungarian Grand Prix, it emerged on Friday.

Perez, who has been replaced by Nico Hulkenberg for Sunday’s British Grand Prix, returned a positive test for Covid-19 on Thursday.

But the mystery of how the Mexican became infected, despite all the protocols in place, deepened when it emerged that he had flown back to Mexico following the race in Budapest on July 19. Racing Point denied on Thursday evening that their driver had done so, despite reports he was seen in a Guadalajara restaurant on July 21.

Perez’s wife Carola Martinez also apparently posted photos on Instagram — since deleted — of the pair on holiday in Italy.

In a video message on Twitter on Friday morning, Perez admitted he had taken a private plane home to see his mother for two days after she had suffered an accident.

“As soon as she left hospital, I was able to see her,” said the 30-year-old, who is now in self-isolation and also likely to miss next weekend’s 70th Anniversary Grand Prix at Silverstone.

“And then I came back to Europe. Same way, with all the protocols in place. I just got it [Covid-19], I don’t know from where. I have no symptoms at all. It is one of the saddest days in my career.”

After the controversy over Charles Leclerc's return to Monaco between the two Austrian races last month – which earned the Ferrari driver a warning from the FIA – Perez's decision to fly to a Covid hotspot has been called into question.

Mexico has had 416,179 total confirmed infections, according to the Health Ministry’s latest official count. The country’s death toll as of Thursday was 46,000, almost the same as the United Kingdom, which has the third-highest in the world.

Perez’s team, though, denied they had an issue with his trip. "We've got no clauses in the contract where he's got to ask permission to go back to his family," Racing Point principal Otmar Szafnauer said. "I think his family was in Mexico, and it's not a surprise that he went back to Mexico, that's what he's done forever while he's been driving for us.

"We did, though, discuss how he was flying there and back, and it was always by a private flight, never commercially. There's no issue with that.”

"Hindsight is a wonderful thing,” Szafnauer added. “Perhaps we should[…] change the code and say ‘throughout the season, you stay within your bubble’? I don't know, that's something for the FIA to consider. But I don't think Checo did anything wrong, going back to his family. He takes all the precautions. I think it's no different than Ferrari going back to Italy, for example."

Hulkenberg, meanwhile, will have the chance to break an unwanted record this weekend. The German’s 177 Grand Prix starts make him the 25th-most experienced F1 driver. But he has famously never achieved a podium.

Racing Point, third in the constructors' championship, clearly have a fast car here, with Lance Stroll quickest in second practice. Hulkenberg was seventh, six-tenths behind his team-mate.