The Monaco and Spain double-header is turning into a disaster for Sergio Pérez. Heading into Monaco last weekend, he was only 14 points behind Verstappen and looked like he had a great chance to reduce that gap considering his pedigree around street circuits in recent times.
However, no points last weekend after his accident in qualifying + nightmare race was compounded today in Barcelona.
Photo credit: Red Bull Content Pool
In Q2, Perez touched a kerb that was still wet following rain earlier in the day in Barcelona and took a trip through the gravel at turn 5.
He explained post-qualifying that the tyres were too hot for the next lap after aborting that initial run.
“I think I touched the wet part and l just lost the car. I managed to control it and get out of there, but then the tyre was simply too hot to do anything in the lap after, unfortunately. It is what it is.”
Pérez had been on the back fun on Friday, lacking pace to teammate Verstappen. Although he was only 0.250s off in final practice, the struggles returned in qualifying.
The 33-year-old only just made it out of Q1 as he finished P15. His luck ran out in the middle segment of qualifying as he could manage P11, however.
“I was not very comfortable with the car, to be honest. I had a good FP3 – I think we managed to make some good progress.
“But all the way through quali, I was not that confident. I think things were looking a little bit tougher for us.”
Barring unforeseen circumstances, the Mexican looks likely to fall close to or over two race wins behind Verstappen in the Drivers’ Championship at the conclusion of tomorrow’s race.
Although he’s targeting a podium, he’s realistic about how difficult it will be.
“Hopefully we are able to recover and get up to some strong points and hopefully get back into the podium positions.
“We have got strong pace but everything is close at the top. It’s going to be difficult to make some progress.”
