Sergio Perez has argued not having fresh tyres meant that his deficit to Red Bull team-mate Max Verstappen at Formula 1’s Austrian Grand Prix wasn’t representative.
Perez was the slowest driver from the front quartet in the championship in eighth place at the Red Bull Ring, over eight-tenths behind Verstappen’s pole position time.
However, the Mexican conducted his laps in the all-important Q3 segment on worn rubber as troubles earlier in proceedings saw him use up more sets than his rivals.
While Verstappen proved to be a class apart under single-lap conditions, the gap between Lando Norris’ McLaren in second place and Perez was less than five-tenths.
Perez bemoaned not possessing the speed during the opening stages to have a clearer shot at securing a position higher up on the grid at Red Bull’s home grand prix.
“We didn’t have the margins early on in qualifying,” Perez admitted.
“It was everything so tight that unfortunately we ended up using more tyres than we wanted, and we arrived into Q3 without any tyres, given how the margins were.
“I think it was four-tenths from P2, and I was on a scrub tyre, so I think today we could have done a lot better.
“But unfortunately, yeah, I think we were not safe enough to save a set into qualifying.”
Perez was unable to make progress from seventh place in the truncated Sprint encounter and instead dropped back one place to eighth place behind Charles Leclerc.
But the six-time F1 race winner is optimistic that there will be opportunities in the main race as he spies overhauling the Ferraris, McLarens and Mercedes cars ahead.
“I think it’s going to be everything really close out there tomorrow, so it will be an interesting battle, I think, tomorrow,” he added.
Red Bull boss Christian Horner, however, reiterated his stance that the team requires Perez to close the margin to Verstappen amid the rising threat from its F1 rivals.
“We’re doing our best to support him and to find out what it is that’s missing because the first four or five races were very competitive,” Horner told Sky Sports F1.
“Whatever has happened that has caused him to drop off… Suzuka, one of the toughest tracks in the world and a real driver circuit, he was a tenth of a second off Max.
“Here, with nine corners, the gap is obviously significantly greater. So we just need to get to the bottom of it and help him recover.”
