It’s shaping up to be another challenging weekend for Sergio Pérez. Despite his hopes of maximizing his performance at the Austrian Grand Prix, he will be starting from a disappointing eighth position. The 34-year-old driver once again faltered during the qualifying round. A ‘frustrated’ Pérez will have to face off against his rivals from Mercedes and Ferrari, while his teammate Verstappen comfortably starts from the pole position.
Pérez attributes his lackluster performance to a failed strategy. The Mexican driver wore out his tires in the initial sessions, forcing him to settle for a used set in Q3. “The margins were incredibly small, but unfortunately we didn’t have new tires for the final session,” he lamented to the media in Austria. He is disappointed, knowing that he could have achieved more than a meager P8.
‘Frustrating’
“We were sometimes within a tenth of P2,” he explained. “I could have challenged Lando (Norris), but with our strategy, we simply didn’t have the tires for it – which cost us dearly. In Q1, the difference was already very small, it was much tighter than we had anticipated. That is, of course, frustrating.”
Pérez initially wanted to ‘get off to a flying start’ for his weekend in Spielberg. Despite the unfortunate results, the Red Bull driver is not entirely dissatisfied. “I think we started the qualifying well – the setup was good, but unfortunately, I had some trouble with the brakes,” he continued. “I’m holding on to the times. It would have only taken two or three tenths more, and I would have been much higher. Unfortunately, we couldn’t maximize.”
