After a disappointing Sprint Qualifying that saw him start the 19-lap contest from P11 and did not allow him to score any points grabbing as he finished P9, Sergio Pérez faced Grand Prix Qualifying for the main event on Sunday.
The driver from Red Bull showed a better pace than earlier on Saturday, making it into Q3 with the fifth-fastest flying lap.
This solid performance would not repeat in the last session of Qualifying, as the Mexican driver only had the chance to complete one flying lap. It put him P8, 0.930s slower than Norris pole time, but it was later deleted by race direction for exceeding track limits at turn 9.
An incident that saw George Russell’s Mercedes crash at turn 19 triggered a yellow flag in the last seconds of Q3, not allowing the 34-year-old driver to set a time.
He will therefore start the 2024 US Grand Prix P10 on the grid.
The Mexican explained how the feeling had improved from the Sprint section of the weekend, making a step forward in performance through Q1 and Q2.
“We changed the car quite a lot going into qualifying. I think everything went in the right direction.
“The tyres were coming to us, we were learning a lot from the tyres, from the out laps.
“Unfortunately, that Q3, I didn’t get to do a lap. It’s pretty disappointing because I think we had a pretty good pace.
“We were probably on the wrong side of the set-up with the Sprint event. We did improve that a lot. Things were looking a lot better.
“I went P5 in Q2, so things were coming to us. It’s pretty unfortunate that we didn’t get to show it in Q3.”
In spite of the disheartening result for the Red Bull driver, Pérez assured his understanding of the car is allowing him and the team to improve the performance, as he said he’s confident a good race pace will be present in Sunday.
“I think we as a team have done a pretty good step in the right direction.
“I obviously don’t have the latest upgrade, which is looking good on Max. I think the car is definitely working better.”
When asked what parts the 11 car lacks in comparison to the Dutchman’s, Pérez explained he has not got the new floor.
“The final spec of the floor.”
Since the massive low of Monza where Verstappen called the RB20 a monster, Red Bull has made clear progress, and the new floor for Verstappen looks to be working well.
“Yeah, I think we understand the limitations. Going to an event, it’s quite helpful to understand the limitations.
“I think the team has definitely done a pretty good job on that. We just have to try and do more of it in the same direction.
“Hopefully tomorrow the race pace will be there and we can be able to recover.”
