Sergio Perez was once again left with ground to cover in a Grand Prix after qualifying, something which became a habit in 2023 and posed a strategy challenge for the Mexican’s side of the Red Bull garage in Bahrain last weekend.
Whereas Max Verstappen started from pole and was able to comfortably romp away into “another galaxy” as Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff put it, Sergio Perez had to fight his way through George Russell and the two Ferraris after starting fifth.
Friday’s qualifying in Bahrain showed the field is close on one-lap pace, so Perez lining up P5, just over a tenth from being able to start alongside Verstappen on the front row isn’t the disaster that his numerous Q2 exits were in 2023.
Still, the Mexican said post-race that fighting through the field in the early stages of the race meant working his tyres harder, giving the team something to think about strategy-wise.
“Starting from P5, it’s always nice to make good progress,” Perez said of his run to second in Bahrain.
“There was a lot of battles on track, which around this place is just going to a very different strategy once that happens. You are sliding a lot more in traffic.
“Overall it’s a very good team result. It was quite close with the Ferraris, with the Mercedes early on. We were fighting with the DRS obviously being a lot earlier. It just changes a few things out there.”
Both Red Bulls started and finished on the soft tyre, with a middle stint on the hard compound, in contradiction to most competitors opting for soft, hard, hard – mainly as a result of the allocation of Pirelli rubber they had left at their disposal.
For plain sailing Verstappen this was an easy strategy to manage, as he pounded in the laps unbothered by the distant battles behind.
Perez meanwhile, had to fend off a charging Carlos Sainz after making his way into second, forcing him to stop early for his final stint on the soft tyre.
Whilst he admitted that “it worked really well to be able to save a new soft” and Red Bull looked better on that tyre than the hard compound around the high-deg Bahrain circuit, Perez said the final stint was tricky but manageable as he finished a few seconds ahead of third place Sainz.
“I knew that it was just about managing,” Perez said.
“[Sainz] pushed us to stop early and it was going to be a very long stint so we managed to progressively build a gap, keep that gap between us consistent and I think it worked well.”
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