Sergio Pérez arrived from F1’s summer break decided to turn around the inconsistent results of the first half of his 2024 season. At the Dutch GP, Q1 in Qualifying was the first time that day that the Mexican’s RB20 went out on track, after a rainy FP3 that kept him inside the garage earlier that morning.
The #11 Red Bull will be fifth in the starting grid after being fastest in Q1 and then giving everything in a one-attempt Q3 which will allow him to start the race behind George Russell and alongside Charles Leclerc.
Pérez debriefed his Qualifying afterwards.
“Yeah, unfortunately, I should also have been putting a better lap on my first attempt in Q2. But, yeah, just unfortunate because I think our qualifying could have looked a bit different with two sets,” he explained.
The Mexican, along with Fernando Alonso, Charles Leclerc, Lance Stroll and Alex Albon, decided on running Q3 with just one attempt of a flying lap, seeing as the rain didn’t make it to Zandvoort and his tyre strategy set for Qualifying had to be adapted, allegedly due to his incident with Lewis Hamilton in Q1.
Pérez made clear how his final position resulting in starting P5 on Sunday could have been different with two new sets of tyres available for two hot laps in Q3, instead of one.
“I think there’s always a bit in just getting the track evolution on two sets of tyres. There is probably a few tenths in it. Hard to know, obviously. But I believe that there was.
“And obviously, just having one run, you don’t want to mess it up. The lap wasn’t that clean, where if you have two sets, you just basically can attack a lot more the first one.”
When asked about his opinion on the dominant gap with which Lando Norris’ McLaren achieved Pole Position from Verstappen’s Red Bull [0.356s], Pérez showed confidence in Red Bull’s upgrades while at the same time admitting McLaren’s strong pace.
“I think they’ve been really strong. They’re looking very strong. But we will see tomorrow, I think. At least from our side, we’ve understood a lot of things with our car. So that’s very promising. I think now we can wrap up our upgrades in the coming races, because now we are understanding a lot more the package.
“So that’s the most promising thing of the weekend.”
Lewis Hamilton was handed a three-place grid penalty for an impeding incident with the Red Bull driver, as Pérez found himself with the #44 Mercedes midway through his second attempt in Q1, at the exit of turn 8.
The 6-time race winner was questioned on the incident before Hamilton’s penalty was made official. He remarked how what happened therefore forced him to fit an unplanned extra set of tyres, and so affected his performance later in Q3.
“That was unfortunate. I think it was wrong time and wrong moment, Lewis was on the racing line. So, there was nothing I could do other than fitting another set, which was very costly then in Q3.
“Yeah, he [Hamilton] has tried his best, but unfortunately we just ended up in the wrong moment. The stewards have been really extreme this year. I’ve got penalties for a lot worse than that, so I do expect him to get a penalty, unfortunately, because I think he did the best he could, and probably there should be a little bit more easiness in that regard, but it’s why it is.”
About his expectations for Sunday’s race, Pérez showed himself confident in fighting the McLarens:
“It’s going to be really hard to overtake, especially with all the cars around us in a similar pace, it’s going to be hard, but we can fight from here.
“I think things should be looking strong for us tomorrow, and we should be in the mix.”
