Sergio Perez said tyre troubles were behind a disappointing qualifying session for the Mexican Grand Prix which left him on the third row of the grid.
The Red Bull driver qualified fifth for his home race, two tenths of a second behind team mate Max Verstappen in third, and a further tenth of a second off pole sitter Charles Leclerc.Perez was seventh after his first run in Q3 on a used set of soft tyres. He then joined his rivals in using a fresh set for his final lap, and jumped up to fifth. However he admitted that was still “not where we wanted to be” and said he shouldn’t have used an extra set of new tyres earlier in qualifying.
“I think we were missing a lot on that set of tyres, that second set of tyres for Q3,” he told Sky.
“In Q2, we really didn’t need it. That was quite costly because the progression that we had in Q3 wasn’t ideal during that first run then going into the new.
“I felt like when I finished my lap, I felt like I undershot it a bit here and there and a tenth or two would have changed completely our lives today, so not ideal.”
Perez said there were big differences between each set of tyres for qualifying due to the circuit where “grip is extremely low.”
“There is a changing temperature of two, three degrees,” he added. “You feel it whereas somewhere else you don’t really feel it. Every single set I had today felt differently, so the grip is extremely low.”
Carlos Sainz Jnr also qualified ahead of Perez in a Ferrari one-two, with AlphaTauri’s Daniel Ricciardo joining Verstappen on the second row. However Perez believes he will be able to attack the cars ahead on Sunday.
“There’s a long race ahead of us, there’s a long way into turn one,” he said. “So a lot of things can happen tomorrow.
“I would have liked to be in the first two rows at least, but I think from where we are there is a race ahead of us because you never know what the Ferrari is going to be like.”
However, he thinks opportunities to progress won’t be easy to come by. “It’s going to be very difficult to overtake,” he said.
“So doing it with the strategy, trying to get some free air will be key tomorrow,” he added. “But I think the most important is to be good on the deg because once the tyre goes, it really goes and it doesn’t matter if you go for two or a one [pit-stop strategy]. So, it’s going to be really close tomorrow I think within the one and the two stop.”
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James Bond (@jamesbond)
29th October 2023, 6:04
He always has an excuse. Boring!
SjaakFoo (@sjaakfoo)
29th October 2023, 8:43
I mean, with Ricciardo qualifying ahead of him, any sliver of hope Perez had of keeping that seat for much longer flew right out of the window then and there.