He was definitely unlucky today, but he needs to pull his shit together anyway. That’s 5(?) races in a row where he’s been underperforming during qualifying
Albon went half a second quicker right behind him. Sure Albon was on new tyres, but Perez is in a Redbull. I don’t buy that him being out front on cold tyres being enough. He’s in a Redbull, the cost is a bit of their advantage, not a negative.
I think Perez looks a bit uncomfortable in the wet. Wasn't it Canada quali as well where he just couldn't find the grip and bailed on the dry tires to make his attempt on Inters when all the fast runners in Q2 were using softs?
Yeah well remembered about Canada in those wet conditions. Perez definitely seems to lack confidence in the wet, at least during qualifying. Not sure if he was the same prior to Red Bull or whether it's something about the car in such conditions that really doesn't suit him.
I can't see the weather from my home, but the fact that he went first in a track that was drying in what became a one-lap shootout was kinda dumb from both him and RB. They should have tried to go as latest as possible.
The reason he didn't do another lap was probably because he ran low on fuel and probably didn't had enough to do another flying lap, but at the same time this is not the first time he doesn't go to Q3, and I am afraid if RBR will lose their patience and drop him at the end of the season. I do not see RBR picking Ricciardo, but they have some good drivers on reserve that can go to Alpha Tauri and bring Tsunoda to RBR (not saying Tsunoda is better than Checo, but he is younger which is a huge plus)
He didn't get the second lap in because there were double yellows.
Here's the thing. We saw Lewis do his very best to try and block max and prevent him getting to the line in time. Max wasnt playing and went past him. Checo would have sat behind Lewis and reached the line after time had already expired
He was sent out on used tires, as were Alonso and Piastri. The other two barely squeaked out a good enough lap. But Perez has the best damn car under him, so no matter what, getting out of the bottom 5 in Q3 is mandatory. You can't keep making excuses for that type of performance. Disappointing from him.
He was unlucky in some ways - the red flag took longer than the team expected so he had cooler tyres from sitting in the pit lane for so long. Also, on the final lap, I'm not sure if he was on a fast lap or not but there was a double yellow flag because of a stopped car on the final lap so he wouldn't have been able to improve if he had been.
On the other hand he just simply wasn't fast enough even with the best car on the grid to the point he was a second slower than the fastest car in Q1 (Norris) and couldn't even beat the Williams. This also hasn't been the only time he's had similar qualifying results this season, so you can only blame being unlucky so many times.
I feel like when things aren't perfect with the setup of his car, or the track conditions aren't perfect, or there is some interruption in qualifying he just loses a lot of confidence and loses the ability to perform, while other drivers can often overcome such obstacles. For me, he's definitely out of form still. Hopefully he can turn it around sooner rather than later.