Pérez Blames Early Qualifying Struggles for P8 Grid Slot in Austria

It was another tough day for Oracle Red Bull Racing’s Sergio Pérez as he could only qualify eighth on the grid for Sunday’s Austrian Grand Prix.

While his teammate, Max Verstappen, was lighting up the timing boards to set pole position, Pérez was struggling to even make it through into the final part of qualifying and when he did make it there, he could only manage eighth due to only having a used set of soft compound tyres available to use.

Pérez hasn’t had an easy weekend so far – only being able to finish eighth in the Sprint to score a singular point. The Mexican driver came into qualifying needing a good result to enable him to have the chance of fighting for a podium and alongside his teammate, but once again he was a big margin away from Verstappen, who is on pole position once again.

Since resigning with Red Bull in Montreal, Pérez has secured just five points from two race weekends and Saturday’s Sprint, leaving lot’s to be desired on his side of the garage. The 34-year-old had trouble early in the session, and had to use extra sets of tyres to progress in qualifying, leaving him with just used sets in the top ten shootout, which eventually led to a maximum finish of eighth. 

While the race on Sunday may give him a chance to progress, his race pace in the Sprint on Saturday morning was lack in comparison to the Scuderia Ferrari and Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team.

Speaking to F1TV, Pérez said: “Well it did, but unfourtanetly we didn’t have the margins early on in qualifying, everything so was tight. Unfourtantely we used more tyres than we wanted and we arrived into Q3 without any tyres. 

“Given how the margins were, we were four tenths from P2 and I was on a scrubbed tyre so I think today we could’ve done a lot better but unfourtantely we weren’t safe enough to save a set into Q2.

“Everything is going to be really close out there tomorrow but it will be an interesting battle.”