After a qualifying session that saw him struggling with tyre strategy, an impeding Mercedes and finally a starting position of P5, Sergio Pérez found himself unable to fight with the pace of McLaren and Ferrari in F1’s Dutch Grand Prix, and so his participation meant a final P6 and 8 points to his and Red Bull standings in the championship.
As lights went out at Zandvoort, the 34-year-old lost a position to Leclerc’s Ferrari, as he had to back off to avoid an accident between himself, Piastri and Russell. Having put on mediums to kick off the race and going for a one-stop strategy, the Mexican assured the hard compound wasn’t very favorable to him, and so on lap 47, as he ran in P5, he was finally overtaken by Carlos Sainz in turn 1.
Pérez grabbed a final P6 behind the #55 Ferrari, followed by Russell’s and Hamilton’s Mercedes. He finished 17s behind teammate Max Verstappen, a respectable gap compared to other Grands Prix recently.
The Mexican debriefed his race to the microphones of Fox Sports Mexico.
“Yes, I had a good start, but I had nowhere to go with Piastri who had a really bad start and so I lost the position to Charles [Leclerc].
“I was close to them at the beginning of the race, but when the degradation started, I struggled more than Ferrari, and with the hard tyres, it was very difficult, very slow.
“Overall we didn’t have the pace today. McLaren and Ferrari were faster than us,” he said.
“I suffered with the degradation of the hard compound in the medium-speed corners. We also suffered with the wind, and between turn 8 and 9. I had no grip, and it was very complicated today.
“We need a good improvement soon to be on par with them, because Lando’s race and the lap he achieved at the end of the race is very scary,” the Mexican said, speaking to ESPN.
Pérez did not lose the opportunity to cover the positive side of the weekend, assuring that the World Champion Team from Milton Keynes has a clearer perspective of the RB20’s struggles after competing in the Netherlands.
“I think the positive thing about the weekend is that we understand now what is happening with the car. We have a fundamental problem that I hope it will be a matter of time before we can solve it, but it is much clearer where we stand now.
“Now next is Monza, where the requirements are different and we hope to be competitive,” he concluded.
