Sergio Perez says being involved in a battle with Charles Leclerc on his final flying lap cost him enough time to be eliminated from SQ1 at the Qatar Grand Prix.
The Red Bull driver was already close to the drop zone when he started his final attempt, but had Leclerc on the inside heading into the first corner. Perez managed to stay in front on the outside and continue his lap, but his improvement was not big enough to take him out of danger and he was eventually eliminated by just 0.013 seconds.
“Unfortunately we left a little late,” Perez explained. “We had a problem with one of the stabilizer bars and when we went to do my last lap we all opened up gaps and then Charles came and we fought into Turn 1 and so on, so we lost a few tenths there.
“It was enough to get knocked out, which was a shame because I thought we had really made progress with the car from P1 to qualifying. We had a lot more potential and it’s a shame that we just ended up here.”
From 16th in a sprint race without pit stops, Perez admits he is unlikely to be able to pull himself into the points battle as only the top eight cars score.
“I think it’s going to be very difficult. For now we are focusing on the rest of the weekend,” he said. “In such a short race I don’t think we can do much. But yes, we will try.”
It wasn’t a particularly strong session for newly crowned world champion Max Verstappen in the other Red Bull either, as he qualified sixth for the sprint and thinks his weekend is likely to be a struggle.
“To be honest, just no pace,” said Verstappen. “Too slow. I just don’t really have the balance to attack. At the middle of the bend the car is slightly off, so that makes it very difficult there. The very high speed is okay, but everything else is not okay and that just makes it hard to push. I think P6 is more or less where we should be, maybe even P7 actually, but of course that’s not where you want to be.
“In the Sprint it will probably be difficult to fight the cars around me, just with the balance I have in the car. Then for the other qualification let’s see if we can improve the situation a little, but I don’t expect it to suddenly be turned upside down and then it will work. It wasn’t great, let’s put it that way.”
