F1 News

Perez 'Performs much better on Sunday than Gasly and Albon did'

20 June 2021 at 21:41
  • GPblog.com

Max Verstappen won Sunday's French Grand Prix and could extend his lead in the championship at the expense of Hamilton. The teammate of the Dutchman, Sergio Perez, drove well in the second half of the race. He eventually finished third in the closing stages by grazing Valtteri Bottas.

In the ZiggoSport studio, however, Dutch WEC driver Giedo van der Garde didn't see it coming at the beginning of the race. "He went really slow. I thought: he's not going to get going. Then he was able to come back. If he had two laps left at the end he would have been second. Perez is good with tyres. In terms of tyre management, Perez is a good driver. But when it comes to one lap Max Verstappen is faster."

Doornbos sees Perez as a fine teammate

Former F1 driver Robert Doornbos agreed and added that there was another reason why he was struggling: "What he was also struggling with: the whole weekend you fly in with free practice and qualifying. Now he had to change his setup on Friday. It was completely changed. So Saturday was a new start for him. He needs to find a mode in that. That he doesn't copy and paste what Max does, but that he just arranges the setup himself. And give him the time for that. Because on Sunday he's been performing better than any of Verstappen's teammates to date."

Perez has certainly been doing great in the last few races, scoring solid points for Red Bull. In the next two races in Austria, the Mexican will try to continue this form.