After strong Mexico and Brazil Grand Prix performances, Sergio Perez lucked out at the F1 Qatar Grand Prix and failed to qualify past Q2, only managing 11th place on the grid for the main race.
Prior to the qualifying session, Perez didn't have particularly good practice sessions, nor was it horrible. However, the F1 star massively struggled to find the same pace as his fellow teammate Max Verstappen and rivals in Mercedes.
His lack of pace in the practice sessions carried onto the qualifying sessions. Unfortunately, this cost both the Mexican and Red Bull good track positions to pressure Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas, failing to make it out of the second session—garnering a subpar result of 11th on the grid for the main race.
When asked about what happened to his pace, Perez stresses that it was more about poor tire preparation which translated into a lack of grip around the circuit. He also notes that just because his track position is less than ideal, doesn't mean that it's over for Red Bull—explaining that there's still a lot that can happen in the F1 main race.
“Today it was more about tyre preparation. I couldn’t have a good clean out lap at all, somehow I was always good at finding a lot of traffic and that was hurting quite a bit going into the first sector, with very cold tyres, but then probably overheating it into the final sector.”
“There’s a long way to go,” concluded Perez. “I think there’s a lot that can still happen in the race. We will give our best and try and get a lot of points.”
With Red Bull needing every single point to stay within striking distance of Mercedes in the F1 constructors' standings, Perez will surely love to bounce back and get into the mix between Verstappen and the two Mercedes drivers.
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