Sergio Perez said an incident with Charles Leclerc led to his elimination in the first round of qualifying for the sprint race in Losail.
The Red Bull driver failed to progress to the second stage of qualifying for the second time in a week. He was also eliminated in Q1 at the Las Vegas Grand Prix.Perez started his final run at a disadvantage as he crossed the starting line alongside Charles Leclerc and had to overtake the Ferrari as they went into the first corner. His best time of 1’22.718 was almost seven-tenths of a second slower than that of team mate Max Verstappen. Perez will start tomorrow’s race 16th, 10 places behind his team mate.
“We left a little bit late,” Perez told the official F1 channel, “we had an issue with one of the anti-roll bars.
“Then to get my final lap, we were all opening laps and then Charles came and we were fighting in turn one and so on, and lost a couple of tenths there, enough to be knocked out unfortunately. It was a shame because I felt like we really progressed with the car from FP1 to qualifying. We had a lot more potential and it’s a shame that we just ended up here.”
The Red Bull driver does not expect he will be able to salvage any points from tomorrow’s sprint race.
“I think it’s going to be very difficult,” he said. “I think for now we will we focus on the rest of the weekend. In such a short race, I don’t think there will be a lot that we can do. But we will try.”
Perez has had a poor run of qualifying results in recent races. He started 18th at home in Mexico, 13th for the sprint race at Interlagos, 12th for the Brazilian Grand Prix and 15th in Las Vegas last weekend.
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2024 Qatar Grand Prix
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Jere (@jerejj)
29th November 2024, 18:56
Of course, he’s never to blame for his subpar performance level.
That little racing didn’t even impact his chances in the end.
RH
29th November 2024, 18:58
It’s called Skill Issue. Should have been binned a year earlier. Oh well.
MichaelN
29th November 2024, 19:00
Why is Horner holding on to Pérez? Isn’t it way, way overdue that he’s asked some tough questions about his inability to manage two strong drivers? They had the option to pick up Sainz when he was in a horrible negotiating position… and didn’t.
NoelyNoel (@noelynoel)
29th November 2024, 20:30
The usual answer to F1 matters – quite possibly tens of millions of dollars.
Jere (@jerejj)
30th November 2024, 8:27
@noelynoel Except Red Bull Racing has always been one of the biggest teams, so sponsor money from drivers has always been a secondary aspect.
Coventry Climax
30th November 2024, 11:39
You forget it was also always Diettrich Mateschitz’ that was so comitted to F1, and with his demise, that attitude may well have changed for Red Bull, the brand.
That said, Perez has actually been generating negative attention for a while now, and there must be a tipping point somewhere.
SPArtacus
30th November 2024, 12:19
I agree. With Dieter around, they may have been less willing to suffer Perez’s endless incompetence just for the money.
ps – I just caught your response re: dive bombing. Good points I all agreed with.
Crawliin-from-the-wreckage- Special Unhinged Edition (@davedai)
30th November 2024, 0:20
Well
You don’t tug on Superman’s cape
You don’t P into the wind
You don’t pull the mask of that old Lone Ranger and you don’t mess around with Slim
Applebook
30th November 2024, 2:28
Horner doesn’t make the decision. Marko and the RB board do.
SPArtacus
29th November 2024, 19:16
As Little Birds has told us, Perez and Gasly would be beating/have beaten Max if they weren’t sabotaged at Red Bull. Why would they sabotage them? I am assuming he’d rationalize it by saying they want to cause tons of headaches for themselves in order to make Max look good. So, either way, rest assured Perez is driving way better than Max.
alex
29th November 2024, 22:59
what are you on about mate
BenHur
29th November 2024, 23:08
of course, eejitmakeupstuffbird’s granny drives a lot faster than Max
SPArtacus
30th November 2024, 5:10
Pretty sure even Zhou is faster than Max in even equipment. It’s just Jos keeping everyone in line. Everyone has a little earpiece and he is constantly updating them on the time to not beat.
Applebook
30th November 2024, 2:29
Don’t you know that every driver who loses was sabotaged? Lewis is being intentionally slowed by Mercedes, just like Perez is by RB, and Senna’s teammates were all sabotaged.
Edvaldo
29th November 2024, 19:19
Perez is so slow i believe a minor incident like that would be enough to derail his session, yes.
F1Genova (@f1genova)
29th November 2024, 20:10
Charles: Inchident you say?
notagrumpyfan
30th November 2024, 10:30
Indeed, he cannot leave soon enough ;)
Coventry Climax
30th November 2024, 11:44
If you just look at the guy’s reaction directly after getting out of the car, he’s not even emotional with it anymore, being knocked out. No surprise, no anger, no fire, no fight.
And please, no Perez anymore too.
SPArtacus
30th November 2024, 12:23
Yup. A tell-tale sign of someone’s who just given up. Either he is in complete denial and thinks things will change “next year” and is just waiting for the season to end or he’s going to finally call it quits. I’m betting it’s the former, but I think patience and the influence of money has run out. I’d bet good money he won’t be in the Red Bull next season. It’s too bad there’s nowhere to wager on that.