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Red Bull Formula 1 driver Sergio Perez was left “very, very pissed off” after qualifying seventh for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, having made a mistake “when it counted”.
Perez was the faster of the two Red Bulls in Friday practice and had a cleaner Saturday as team-mate Max Verstappen crashed in final practice and missed out on his performance running before qualifying.
The Mexican then finished the first two segments of qualifying in the top three, including lapping just 0.005s slower than Verstappen in Q2 in a Red Bull one-two, but he set a poor first lap in Q3 that was only good enough for seventh.
Perez’s best lap included a lock-up at the Turn 4 right-hander that meant his Q3 time was almost three tenths slower than his Q2 lap, and when Yuki Tsunoda and Carlos Sainz Jr crashed independently of each other at the same corner and caused a red flag, the session was ended before the second runs could be completed.
Perez felt that a combination of being close to the McLaren of Lando Norris in front and a bit more wind had contributed to his error but admitted he was “very, very pissed off today given that we should definitely be on the top two, on the front row, at very least”.
“It was just a lock-up that ruined our day,” Perez said. “If not [for that] we should have been in the front row for sure, but I’m sure it’s the same for a lot of people.
“When it counted, we didn’t put it together. As simple as that.”
Perez said his situation was not helped by Q3 being a “disaster” in terms of track positioning, which he said was “the worst I had all weekend”.
He accused some drivers, who he didn’t name, of being disrespectful by overtaking one another late in the lap – breaching the often-cited “gentleman’s agreement” to hold position in the final sector when everyone is on an out-lap.
“It was basically that we all went at the same time, and people are creating gaps, but then other people are overtaking, not respecting the gentleman’s agreement,” he said.
“It just made things harder. Some drivers can respect that, not all.”
Perez described the outcome as a “big disappointment” after his strongest weekend for Red Bull so far.
Although he qualified on the front row at Imola, there he had trailed Verstappen through practice and only made a late step in qualifying then struggled in the race.
He looked like he might be able to inflict a second qualifying defeat of the season on Verstappen and believes despite the result that he has “definitely” made a fundamental step in his understanding of the RB16B.
“The pace shows that,” he said. “Today we should have qualified well ahead of where we are, just by putting that lap together.
“That lap from Leclerc was probably a bit strong, I have to say, but other than that, we had the pace to fight for the pole today. It’s not like Monaco we were totally off.
“We’ve been doing a lot of analysis weekend after weekend things. These weeks are very long for me because I’m just figuring out the differences here and there. Also my feedback and the communication with the engineers is getting better.
“There are a lot of positives and I think tomorrow we should be able to have a strong race pace.
“I’m not trying to change the balance to the way I used to drive, I’m chasing the balance as the car needs to be driven.
“That has made a good difference performance-wise, in long runs and short runs.”
