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Perez balks at red flags: 'Not an easy day'
Sergio Perez only featured in one free practice session on Friday in Abu Dhabi. The Mexican had to make way for a rookie in FP1, but took the wheel of the RB19 again in the second practice session. FP2 was disrupted by a lot of red flags and eventually Perez finished fifth. Perez himself thinks it could have been even harder.
Perez moderately satisfied
Speaking to F1TV, Perez looks back on how his RB19 behaved during the second practice session. "We had to do some tricks to it. I was struggling a bit with some front end initially, but obviously, we hardly got any running, especially on the mediums."
On the soft tyres, Perez seemed very fast, on two occasions the Mexican was under Charles Leclerc's lap time after the first two sectors, but in the third sector Perez still did not get it right. "Then on my soft run, I had traffic with people doing high fuel there in the end, so it wasn't a very straightforward day," explained the Red Bull Racing driver.
Perez: Being careful with set-up
"Without running in FP1 too, it has been very short running, so we know that we have to be very careful on which route we take, because I think when I did my lap, the tyres were on the hot side, so yeah, not very representative at that point," Perez explained. The Mexican has struggled with the balance of his RB19 more than once this season, so he clearly does not want to make another mistake.
Perez also thinks he did not drive his best lap. "Well, I think FP1 here is not very representative. I think it's more that we didn't get any long run. It's not ideal in that regard, but it's what it is, and let's look forward for tomorrow. We certainly just have to do some trickles here and there, and we should be able to come back and look forward for it," Perez concluded.