Sergio Perez was unable to find the vacuum he needed to steal pole position from Charles Leclerc today, something he attributes to his engine problems in the garage before his final lap. However, the Mexican was still able to beat his teammate Max Verstappen and place himself on the front row of the grid.
Sergio Perez was unable to find the vacuum he needed to steal pole position from Charles Leclerc today, something he attributes to his engine problems in the garage before his final lap. However, the Mexican was still able to beat his teammate Max Verstappen and put himself on the front row of the grid.
"At the end we had a problem with the engine, we couldn't start it and that meant I was basically on my own," he said after qualifying, before adding that "a vacuum is very powerful around here."
He was stuck in the garage for longer than he wanted, which meant he lost an important vacuum, but Perez wasn't sure if it would have been enough to claim first place, explaining that: "who knows if it would have been enough for pole, we definitely lost a few tenths, but Charles did a very good lap."
The Red Bull driver was struggling throughout the session, with some close encounters with the wall, but that won't affect him tomorrow and he knows anything can happen.
"When you get to Q3, you give it your all, it was a little bit too much, I hit the wall a few times, but luckily we managed to survive, which is key when you are here. I think tomorrow is a very long race, so we have to make sure we are there, at any moment you can make a mistake," he concluded.