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Perez at advantage against Verstappen after disappointing Sprint Qualifying
Another disappointing qualifying session for Sergio Perez, this time for the sprint race in Qatar. The Red Bull Racing Mexican did not progress beyond spot 15, whilst teammate Max Verstappen did manage to advance to SQ3 - posting the sixth fastest time. With his disappointing qualifying, Perez does have one advantage for the rest of the weekend.
Since Perez was less in action than Verstappen, George Russell, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, he has more sets of tyres left. Compared to the aforementioned drivers, Perez has saved an extra set of mediums and a set of soft tyres. The list from tyre supplier Pirelli also shows that Ferrari has one more new set of hard tyres for Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, no new mediums and four new sets of soft tyres. 
Pirelli saw less graining than expected
Pirelli informs that for the sprint race the medium tyre is the ideal choice, although the tyre supplier does not rule out the soft tyre. Simone Berra, Chief Engineer of Pirelli, also states that the graining of the tyres does not seem to be as bad as expected. This is going to have its effect in Sunday's Grand Prix: "So far, the level of graining we have seen is lower than we expected and the reduction in performance is very limited."
"This could push the teams more towards a one-stop strategy. With this in mind, it will be important to keep an eye on the behaviour of the tyres during tomorrow's sprint race, as very few drivers made meaningful long runs today with a lot of fuel on board," the Italian said.
This article was written in collaboration with Ludo van Denderen.
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