Sergio Perez admits he’s not a fan of sprint races following the final trial of the 2021 season in Sao Paulo on Saturday.
The last of three F1 Sprint events took place in Brazil, which saw Valtteri Bottas take pole position after winning the 24-lap race.
Perez was fourth, as he followed Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz for much of the race, having been overtaken by the Spaniard on the run to the first corner.
F1 used the Sprint format at two previous events this year, and is set to introduce them at more rounds in 2022.
When asked if he was a fan of the revised weekend arrangement, Perez said: “To be honest, no I don’t think they’re great fun.
“I think they’re mainly for the fans so if they enjoy them then good, but I don’t particularly enjoy them.
“I just feel like there is not a lot of action, you know? There’s not a lot of overtaking, or it doesn’t change as much things going into tomorrow’s race, which is the main one.
“You cannot take too many risks because you can be heavily affected trying to pass people here. It’s not like the actual race, you haven’t gained anything but you can lose a lot.”
Perez added that there were “more risks I could have taken” when following Sainz, but doesn’t think “they were necessarily for today’s race”.
One standout drive in the F1 Sprint in Brazil was from Lewis Hamilton, who climbed from the back of the field to fifth place.
With a five-place grid penalty to be applied for Sunday’s starting grid after the Mercedes driver took on a fresh engine, Perez believes the seven-time world champion will be a major factor in the grand prix.
“It was pretty surprising to see the progress that he made,” Perez said. “He really did have tremendous pace, but I was very surprised to see that.
“I think Lewis has a tremendous straight-line speed. I have seen some of the moves he has done, like the one from Norris is pretty impressive – to see how far behind he is. So yeah he did a very good race.”
“I think he will come through sooner or later and he will be in the mix for tomorrow’s race.”
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