Sergio Perez has attributed his Q2 elimination in qualifying at the Singapore Grand Prix to set-up changes that took his Red Bull Formula 1 car in the “wrong direction”.
Perez was endeavouring to build on an encouraging weekend in Azerbaijan last time out that had him on track to take a podium until a late collision with Carlos Sainz.
But Perez was made to deliver a late improvement in Q1 to progress and he was unable to clock the lap time he required to escape the drop zone in the second stage.
With Red Bull team-mate Max Verstappen acquiring second place on the grid, Perez was bewildered by his struggles to extract grip in Q2 as he slumped to 13th place.
“I don’t know, Q1 was looking really nice and smooth, I actually had a mistake on my lap into Turn 1 where I lost around two-three tenths.
“But I just went slower in Q2, I felt I was sliding a lot more, couldn’t get the tyre up to temperature. It was just very, very tricky, very tricky afternoon.”
Perez outlines Singapore struggles
Perez bemoaned encountering unexpected trouble with the Soft tyre in Q2 compared to the compounds that he used in the opening segment and overheating brakes.
“Yeah, to me in Q2 I had issues with the brakes and the tyres, I think the brakes were running too hot and I was lacking quite a lot of bite from them,” he explained.
“And the tyres were absolutely nowhere in Q2, the two laps I did I just had no grip at all, was super tricky.”
However, the Mexican believes the greatest aspect behind his premature exit was alterations to the set-up on his RB20 overnight which made the car’s balance worse.
“We changed quite a bit the car, I think we probably went in the wrong direction, it’s not so clear at the moment,” Perez assessed.
“But we certainly were in a nicer window yesterday, we just lost a lot of competitiveness.”
With overtaking tough on the tight and twisting Singapore streets, Perez has acknowledged that he will be reliant on the pit wall to help him climb back into the points.
“I think it’s going to be a very difficult race,” he conceded. “Hopefully we can do some magic with the strategy and come through, that will be the key for us.”
