Sergio Pérez had a decent first two qualifying sessions, ones in which he could keep up with teammate Max Verstappen, but it all came undone in Q3, where his second and best lap was deleted as he crossed the track limits at turn 1.
So a frustrating final qualifying for the vice-champion, who bemoaned the track limits after finishing just ninth in Q3.
“Yeah, frustration as always,” he begins his complaints. “Especially when it’s so close and you just have to rely on the stewards and, I mean, it’s the way it is now, but I really hope that during the winter we are able to find a better solution for the drivers, but also for the people back home, because it’s confusing for everyone, and I don’t think it looks nice.
“You know, finishing qualifying and then you have teams that will be arguing this afternoon to try to get penalties there.
“So I just feel like it’s some work that we’ve got ahead of us to try to come up with a better solution on track limits.”
When pressed the Mexican veteran had no clear solution for the issue himself, but acknowledged the circuit design should take these issues into account.
“I have no idea. You know, they should be working on a better solution than what we have now and working on the circuits. I think we create these issues for ourselves just with how the circuits are.
“I mean, you are aware of [the track limits], but they’re just so hard to judge.”
But regardless of the track limits, Checo was unhappy with his performance in Q3 anyway, as he failed to complete a clean lap.
“Yeah, it’s been a bit difficult. I had a really strong Q1, Q2, but then in Q3 with a single set of tyres, it wasn’t the smoothest session.
“And I did a mistake going into turn 6 and I undershoot a bit turn 1, so the lap was just not very clean.
“I lost few tenths into [turn] 6, but unfortunately it’s the way it is. And now let’s look forward for tomorrow.”
