Perez falls short of tyres in qualifying: 'Were within tenth of P2'

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reaction perez after eighth place in qualifying austria
30 June at 08:15
  • Corwin Kunst

Sergio Perez will not look back on a fine Saturday. In the sprint race, he earned just one point for the world championship by finishing eighth, followed by another eighth-place finish in qualifying. The Mexican hopes he can move further forward tomorrow at the Red Bull Ring.

There has been a big gap between Verstappen and Perez all year, but qualifying in Spielberg made it painfully clear once again that the Mexican cannot come close to his teammate. Nine (!) tenths was between the men.

It has to be said: Perez was driving on used tyres in Q3. That, in turn, has to be said: he had himself to blame for that. He needed all his available sets earlier in qualifying to be among the first ten to reach Q3.

Perez had second place in sight

"I think, unfortunately, we didn't have the new tyres in Q3 given where the margins were at times, we were looking within a tenth from P2, but unfortunately, we arrived into Q3 and we had no new tyres left," said the experienced Mexican in conversation with GPblog and others. "Given where the margin was, I think it was four tenths to Lando, and I think big chunk of that is a new tyre, unfortunately."

He continued: "It's frustrating to pass through the rubber so quickly. Unfortunately, it was not enough for us and we didn't manage to get the maximum. But all the changes that we've done, I believe, that are going to help for tomorrow's race."

Perez struggled with the brakes in Austria, losing the necessary time. "I was struggling a bit on the braking and I think it's something that we have to improve. Other than that, I mean, when you look at the timing, two to three tenths, life will look very different. Unfortunately, we didn't get the maximum out of qualifying in terms of tyre usage, and we unfortunately run off of tyres."