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Sergio Perez labels qualifying session as a ‘complete disaster’ after wounding up in 18th.
Sergio Perez experiences a difficult qualifying session at Monaco. Photo credits: Mark Thompson via Getty ImagesIt’s been a difficult start to the weekend for Red Bull.
Max Verstappen had complained during a Free Practice session how the Milton-Keynes based outfit were ‘nowhere’ near the pace compared to other teams around the Monaco circuit.
After a tough practice session, Verstappen spoke out about the issues he and his teammate were facing during the session, expressing the difficulty of excelling in ‘certain areas’:
”Certain bumps and kerbstones were impossible for us to take.” Verstappen stated to press on Friday evening.
“Every time we do, we lose an awful lot of time because the handling of the car is not good. That prevents us from going faster.
A tough start for Perez
Although, Perez finished in fifth in FP3, even after set-up changes, the pace of the Red Bull car disappeared during qualifying.
Q1 saw the shock exit of the Mexican after he clocked in a 1:12.060.
A dire qualifying position for the team in 18th, only just outperforming the two Sauber’s.
Perez expresses disappointment on qualification
Looking back on the session, Perez expressed his disappointment about the early exit, labelling the difficult session due to ‘traffic’:
“It was a disaster because firstly on my lap I encountered a lot of traffic into Turn 6, into 7 and there were some stickers laying down on the apex of 8 so I had to avoid all of that,” Perez stated to media.
Perez was almost two-tenths off to the progression time into Q2.
When speaking to the media, Perez spoke about how Red Bull’s glimmer of hope in the final practice session wasn’t able to communicate into his final flying lap during qualifying:
“I ended up losing a couple of tenths that would have been enough to get through. I was half a second off P1 so it was just a complete disaster, unfortunately.”
Perez goes on to mention how the weekend was ‘totally over’ given the difficulty of overtaking around the Monaco circuit:
“And basically, the weekend is totally over because here there is no chance to overtake, unfortunately.”
“This morning we were finding the light. You know, I was P5. We made some more changes, but unfortunately, there were not enough to come through.
“And it hurts a lot, you know, because I think just by putting normal lap in, it would have been enough, but with the traffic that we encountered, it was really difficult.”
The Mexican driver qualifies in 18th whilst his teammate, Verstappen, qualifies in third. Perez has a tough battle ahead of him on Sunday afternoon during the Monaco Grand Prix.
Featured image credits: @SergiozPerez on InstagramInstagram.