F1 Bahrain GP: “We have a Sunday race car,” Sergio Perez optimistic about Red Bull’s prospects after qualifying P2
The 33-year-old admitted that Red Bull tailored the car for the race rather than Qualifying.
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Sergio Perez
The Bahrain Grand Prix Qualifying is done and dusted. Red Bull were the favorites coming to this race weekend and the Austrian team did not disappoint. Max Verstappen secured Pole position while Sergio Perez followed the Dutchman closely in P2. The Mexican driver has hinted that his team still has a lot left in the store for the main race on Sunday.
The 33-year-old was surprised to see how close the grid was in Qualifying. In Q1, all 20 drivers were separated by a gap of just 1.28 seconds. Sergio Perez recalled having never witnessed such a session in his F1 career. He said, “I mean it has been really tight qualifying. I don’t remember such a tight qualifying battle from Q1 Q2 and you know the competition its is really marginal.”
Sergio Perez stunned the viewers after disclosing the race-centric set-up on the car. Red Bull decided to focus on the car’s race pace instead of Qualifying and yet Max Verstappen got the Pole position. The 33-year-old said, “If anything we prepared much more for the race. We have much more of a Sunday race car at the moment underneath us.”
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Sergio Perez expects Red Bull to thrive in the race
The Mexican driver affirmed the need for drivers to give in a 100% on every lap to secure a decent result in Qauli. Sergio Perez continued. “You can not leave anything on the table to maximize your grid position.” Moreover, Checo mentioned not being fully comfortable with the RB-19 in the F1 session. He stated, “In the end, I was not totally comfortable with the balance You can always improve a tenth on your lap. But I think to get this start for the team is really special.”
Lastly, the Mexican driver admitted that the team still has more pace to extract from the car. As presently it ran a set-up not ideal for a qualifying session. Sergio Perez said, “We knew we had to do some compromises for Quali which we end up doing. They were not ideal Hopefully tomorrow we have a really good race car.”This would be ringing alarm bells at Ferrarin as Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz hope to out-race the Red Bulls in the Grand Prix.
Thus, Red Bull have perhaps got the ideal start to the 2023 F1 season so far. The Austrian team has secured the front row for the race. Additionally, Sergio Perez has found the potential to match Max Verstappen from the get-go. As the 33-year-old was only a tenth behind the Dutchman. It remains to be seen whether the Red Bull drivers can convert this Qualifying session to a race victory in the race.
In case you missed it:
- F1 Bahrain GP: “We are in a better position,” Charles Leclerc optimistic after securing P3 at Sakhir
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Armaan Agarwal
(2435 Articles Published)