Sergio Perez blames ‘understeer’ for his horrendous Q2 exit at Qatar GP qualifying

Sergio Perez needs to have a clean outing during the remaning days of the Qatar GP weekend.

Sergio Perez blames ‘understeer’ for his horrendous Q2 exit at Qatar GP qualifying

Sergio Perez and Helmut Marko (via IMAGO)

The F1 extravaganza has reached the dusty Lusail International Circuit for the eighteenth round of the 2023 F1 season. While Max Verstappen did his usual thing during yesterday’s qualifying session, putting his RB19 in P1 for Sunday’s race, Sergio Perez, on the other hand, struggled massively and got knocked out during the Q2 session of qualifying.

A lot has already been said about the woes that Sergio Perez faced yesterday, but he has come forward and revealed that he was struggling with understeer during quali. He believes that given the tricky track layout or the Lusail circuit, there was no need for track limits as it caused several drivers to lose their lap times during the whole FP1 and quali session.

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While shedding light on the same in detail, after qualifying, he said, as reported by Fox Sports, “It was a shame, those millimeters didn’t help. We talked about this on the drivers’ meeting, that there was no need for track limits on a difficult track like this one. I have a lot of understeer, but I also struggle with the rear end, I haven’t been able to find an ideal setup.”

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“The race is different, while I have degradation it seems to come from the front of the car, so maybe we can fix it making adjustments in the front wing by then.” Looking at the reaction of the Mexican driver, it is quite clear that he has been struggling with quite a few issues and Lusail and has carried forward some of his woes from the past races.

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Sergio Perez needs to get his act together for the remainder of the Qatar weekend

While Sergio Perez is quite disappointed with how Friday’s sessions panned out for him at the Lusail International circuit, he does not have much time to keep dwelling on it. The ongoing race weekend is being conducted in a Sprint format, and thus, there will be quite a few points on offer for all twenty Formula 1 drivers.

Sergio Perez
Sergio Perez (Credits: Sky Sports)

Perez needs to forget about yesterday, give his full attention to what is coming his way, and make sure that he can have a better outing. First up, it will be the 45-minute quali session for the Sprint shootout, and then it will be the Sprint race. If the 33-year-old wants to score solid points today, he would need to put his RB19 through the absolute wringer to make sure he starts the Sprint race from as high as possible.

However, considering the woeful form that Sergio Perez has been in from pretty much the start of the second leg of the 2023 F1 season, it will not be easy for him to perform during the upcoming sessions. No matter what happens, one thing is guaranteed: several eyes will be glued on Perez’s exploits in his RB19 compared to his teammate.

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