Red Bull’s Sergio Pérez will start the Las Vegas GP in P16, after failing to make it out of Q1 for the sixth time this season.
Low speed struggles
Struggling to unlock the one-lap potential of the RB20, Pérez found himself outpaced as others improved late in the session, including the Sauber of Zhou Guanyu and RB’s Liam Lawson.
He ran on one set throughout Q1 as other used more, and it ultimately cost the 34-year-old dearly as he was 0.8s slower than Max Verstappen.
“In hindsight we should have just two sets, given that we were not so competitive in Q1.
“The main struggle is really that low speed with the tyres, it’s where the main struggle comes from.
“The whole weekend I’ve been struggling quite a lot with the grip,” Pérez admitted.
“It’s just really difficult to put the lap together with the amount of sliding and with the tyres, not making it work, that’s been the most difficult one.
“I did expect a very difficult qualifying and yeah it turned out to be a tough one.”
RB20 and its fundamental issues
The Red Bull driver suggested that the issues he’s facing go beyond set-up tweaks or adjustments, pointing to clear challenges with the car that have been hampering his performance, an issue that dates back to last year.
“I think we’ve got a fundamental issue at the moment with the car that is just not working for me,” he explained.
“At the moment we come to the weekends and we just explore a lot of things — it’s just a difficult one to make it work.
“You want to be up there, especially I know what I can do. But when you don’t have that grip underneath you, then it’s really hard, and you’re prone to a lot of mistakes and so on.”
The struggles for Pérez since the summer break have been well-documented and continued in the Las Vegas GP qualifying.
His inability to consistently match the pace of his teammate and their main competitors has left him fighting an uphill battle.
Making up places in the Grand Prix
While the 6-time race winner acknowledged that starting from 16th will make for a tough race, he remained hopeful about his chances to climb through the field.
“There’s a long race ahead, a lot of things will happen, and I believe we will be more competitive come race day,” he said.
“Yesterday we looked a lot better over the long race than over a single lap.”
With Saturday’s race offering opportunities to recover positions, Pérez will need to rely on strong race pace and strategy to salvage something from what has been another difficult weekend in what has become a challenging season.
