Perez disappointed and claims 'wrong direction' was taken with Red Bull car

Asked what happened to him in Q2, Perez replied: "I don't know. Q1 was looking really nice and smooth. I actually had a mistake on my lap into turn 13 where I lost around two or three-tenths. But I just went slower in Q2. I started sliding a lot more. I couldn't get the tyre up to temperature. It was just very, very tricky. Very tricky afternoon."

Perez experienced several difficulties during qualifying in Singapore

Perez faced several problems during the session. "Q2, I had issues with the brakes and with the tyres. I think the brakes were running too hot and I was lacking quite a lot of bite from them. And just the tyres were absolutely nowhere in that Q2. The two laps I did, I had just no grip at all. It was super, super tricky."

Whereas Verstappen felt Red Bull had made good strides after Friday, Perez, on the contrary, thought his car had deteriorated. "We changed the car quite a bit. I think we probably went in the wrong direction. It's not so clear at the moment, but we certainly were on a nicer window yesterday, and we just lost a lot of competitiveness."

The Marina Bay Street Circuit in Singapore is a very difficult track to get everything right, Perez said. "I think it's just the tyres being so picky around here. The grip, the ride, and the track changing lap by lap. It's just a very tricky tricky place."

The Mexican is not expecting much in Sunday's Grand Prix. "Tomorrow it's going to be a very difficult race. Hopefully we can do some magic with the strategy and come through. Yeah, that will be the key for us," Perez said.

This article has been created in collaboration with Matt Gretton