Sergio Perez felt vindicated after ending a string of poor results in qualifying by claiming his first front row start for nine rounds at Spa.
The Red Bull driver qualified third on the grid but was promoted to the front row as team mate Max Verstappen has a 10-place penalty for a power unit change.Perez said the result came after he made significant changes to his car during practice. “We tried a lot of things,” he said. “We kept throwing things at it, and it’s never ideal when you don’t have progression.
“Once again, today we threw at it a lot of things. I think we found a nicer window, a little bit similar in the direction of Hungary. But we were a lot happier with the car.”
He dropped out in Q1 at the previous two rounds after making mistakes in qualifying, and came within three thousandths of a second of failing to reach Q3 today. Perez said the result shows what he can do when he feels fully confident in his car.
“It’s not like I forgot how to drive from five, six races ago,” he said. “It’s just that – you see it with a lot of drivers – sometimes you’re not able to maximise the full potential of your car and for that reason you end up lacking that confidence to extract the maximum out of the car you have.”
Although he suffered setbacks in qualifying at the previous rounds, in Hungary he rose from 16th on the grid to finish seventh. He said there have been signs of progress in recent races.
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“We’ve been taking good step forwards in the right direction since Hungary,” said Perez. “I think Silverstone was already quite good, I had a really good Friday.
“The car is going in the right direction for now and hopefully tomorrow we are able to finish it off with a strong result. And still, there is a long way to go in the season.”
Despite signing a contract extension earlier this year, Perez’s future at Red Bull was cast in doubt when team principal Christian Horner described his poor scoring rate as “unsustainable” after the British Grand Prix. However Perez said today’s result “doesn’t change anything” regarding his situation in the team.
“I’ve always said it’s not where we are now, it’s how you ride the waves and where we finish in Abu Dhabi. There are a lot of drivers that haven’t been able to maximise their performance lately, but obviously the scrutiny on my side has been quite a bit higher.
“It doesn’t change anything from my point of view. I think tomorrow is a new day, a new opportunity. It would have been the same if I was knocked out in Q2.
“Tomorrow is a new opportunity to do better. And it’s the way I see it. It’s tomorrow what really counts. And if I don’t have a good race tomorrow, I will try to have a good one in Zandvoort.
“It’s how it is, this is a sport and sometimes it goes your way, sometimes you have to fight and nothing goes in your direction, but I think it’s just the nature of the sport.”
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Euro Brun (@eurobrun)
27th July 2024, 19:07
But Q2 shows how lucky he was.
That was nearly P11, so I don’t think he can really be too self-congratulatory about that.
Chun
27th July 2024, 19:12
It’s his final race for the team, let him have this one.
gDog (@gdog)
27th July 2024, 19:39
Also the high downforce setup RedBull went with for qualifying meant they were clearly the fastest car today. Seems like standard Perez level of performance to me.
Xavi
27th July 2024, 19:40
Looking at the whole picture we can say not just the driver but the team / garage was lucky. Perez last lap came way earlier than the rest behind as the track was improving. The team miscalculated the timing to go out for the hot lap. You can even hear Perez on the onboard at end of Q2 demanding the Team to step up the game.
Must drivers have benefited from luck before this season, it is part of the sport.
Asd
27th July 2024, 19:52
He does keep forgetting how to drive.
Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
27th July 2024, 20:10
He was 0.003 seconds away from being knocked out in what was clearly the best car in this session. He should have been able to claim P2 and gain pole from it. P3 and 0.6 off Verstappen is still reasonable though as he didn’t have the upgrades.
But he was incredibly lucky to even get through to Q3. He also was right in the dropzone in Q1 until the last moment, which could have been the end of everything if anyone triggered a yellow flag in a sector Perez was in. He took his time to set good times in the sessions.
Nulla Pax (@nullapax)
27th July 2024, 20:24
Looks like we were all wrong Sergio.
We look forwards to watching you humiliate the rest of the grid with your phenomenal skills over the rest of the season.
SteveP
27th July 2024, 20:42
Nice one.
Do you do stand-up comedy appearances? :)
Broderick Harper (@banbrorace)
27th July 2024, 20:45
LOL!!
Broderick Harper (@banbrorace)
27th July 2024, 20:47
Clearly Sergio, has airbrushed Q2 out of his head
Jim from US (@jimfromus)
28th July 2024, 0:50
Not sure we can declare PER back since the qualifying was contested using rain tires. Will need to see a day qualifying to judge.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
28th July 2024, 2:13
Well, perez is worse on the wet than on the dry, so I think he’s either back or the fact red bull is always very strong at spa helped him.
Nick T.
28th July 2024, 3:12
The problem is Sergio being back = almost getting eliminated again in Q1 and Q2 in the best car this weekend.
Applebook
28th July 2024, 8:32
Being 6 tenths slower than Max at a circuit where RB isn’t dominate would mean that Sergio has little chance of making Q3. We’ve seen him qualify closer to Max than this. I guess it’s been so miserably for him that just making it into Q3 and not crashing out is considered brilliance.
Coventry Climax
28th July 2024, 9:17
But it will take a couple of consecutive full seasons completely void of Mexican Pretzel antics, before we forget how utterly abysmal your driving has been sofar, mr. Perez.
I think it’s a rather safe bet to say that won’t happen.
Very predictable though, as it’s what happens every time: One result that’s OK-ish following a string of disasters, and he feels and talks like he’s king again.
Dump this guy please.