Another disappointing result: Every time Sergio Perez got eliminated in Q1 this season
As three teams, McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes began to catch up to Red Bull Racing this season, slowly but surely Sergio Perez fell back in the order after he finished in second place in the drivers' championship in 2023. In Las Vegas, another disappointing result followed, and another early exit for Perez.
Throughout the season, no matter the Grand Prix, the RB20 was a Top 4 car on the grid. One off weekends can happen in Formula One, however, in Las Vegas, Sergio Perez has now got eliminated for the sixth time in Las Vegas in 2024.
The first time that happened was in Monaco, where 'Checo' finished in P18 (although he was promoted a couple of positions after the two Haas drivers got disqualified). On a short track, Perez was 0.349 seconds slower than his teammate, Verstappen. Even with a contract getting announced, he did not improve in Canada. For the second time in a row, he was eliminated early on. Verstappen topped Q1 in Montreal, nearly a second ahead. In both of these Grands Prix, Perez also did not manage to cross the finish line, let alone score points.
The next two Q1 eliminations followed in back-to-back events in Silverstone and at the Hungaroring. In interesting conditions, Perez crashed out causing a red flag, and could not set a competitive lap time. In Hungary, another crash followed in Sector 2. As a result, the gap between the two drivers ended up being 0.799 seconds. At least at the latter GP, Perez could finish P7 and scored some points.
The Mexican's home Grand Prix also began with a disaster. The gap to Verstappen that time: 0.808 seconds. During the GP, Perez once again lost performance after making contact with Liam Lawson. Then came today, where he finished 0.856 seconds behind Verstappen once again in the first session in qualifying.
In terms of recovering, Perez could only finish inside the points once, in Hungary. On every other occasion, he failed to score as well for Red Bull after already making mistakes in qualifying.
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