F1 News: Sergio Perez Blames Tyre Strategy For Missing Out On Japanese GP Front Row Start

Red Bull's Sergio Perez pinpointed a less-than-ideal tyre strategy as the primary reason for not securing a front-row start at the Japanese Grand Prix. While teammate Max Verstappen clinched pole, Perez found himself down in fifth.

Key Takeaways

Despite Max Verstappen's dominant qualifying performance, Sergio Perez believes that with an additional set of new soft tyres in Q3, he could have secured a front-row position alongside his teammate.
Throughout the Japanese GP weekend, Perez admitted feeling consistently "two steps behind" Verstappen, emphasising challenges with entry stability.
Red Bull Team Principal Christian Horner identified high-speed corners as areas where Perez hasn't matched Verstappen's pace but remains optimistic about the Mexican's race pace.

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At the iconic Suzuka Circuit, Max Verstappen showcased his class, taking pole by a significant margin. However, the same could not be said for his teammate, Sergio Perez, who trailed Verstappen's time by 0.773 seconds, landing the fifth spot on the grid.

Acknowledging Verstappen's prowess, Perez commented:

"Max has been very strong. I mean, when we see the difference that he is making, he's definitely had a tremendous lap. Well done to him."

However, Perez didn't hold back in expressing his frustrations about the decisions taken during the qualifying sessions.

"Definitely the front row was in the car today because [using] that second set in Q2 was not ideal. And that put us on the back foot to the McLaren mainly by just having one set of new tyres, so that was not ideal."

Elaborating on his challenges, Perez shared with the F1 website about his weekend in Japan.

"It was hard. We did struggle through the weekend. We kind of were always two steps behind, and we just couldn't get the entry stability I was looking to get over a single lap."

However, with a race day still to come, Perez's hopes aren't entirely dashed.

"But come race day, I think we are looking a lot better. I think that tomorrow is going to be such a degradation tyre battle that hopefully tomorrow we can still be able to do a one-two."

Red Bull's Christian Horner chimed in, providing further insight:

"He’s slightly under the car compared to Max in those high-speed turns," he noted, but added, "P5 for Checo, I think he’ll have strong race pace, we saw that yesterday so I think he’ll be okay in the race."

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