Sergio Perez says he’s ‘very happy’ with his first top ten start of the 2011 season after making it through to Q3 in Hungary.
It isn’t the Mexican’s first time in Q3, but it will be his first start in such a position after crashing in Monaco when he was trying set a competitive Q3 time – unfortunately the Sauber driver couldn’t start that race.
“I am very happy,” said the 21-year-old. “It is the second time that I have made it into Q3 and the first time I can celebrate it.
“My fastest lap in Q2 was a really good one, I think we achieved the maximum possible today. The team handled the conditions very well, and the strategy was really good.
“But all what matters is tomorrow. Our race pace should be good, and I hope I can improve and score some good points.”
The team opted to save tyres in Q3 and therefore Perez never set a competitive time in the final qualifying session so he will start the race with the maximum amount of new tyres, a decision team principal Peter Sauber says was the right thing to do.
“It’s the first time in his Formula One career that Sergio can start from the top ten, which is always something special,” said Sauber. “Congratulation to him for a fantastic performance and also to his race engineer. I’m sure it was the right thing to do to save one set of new super soft tyres for the race.”
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