Sergio Perez says a set-up issue compromised his performance during Friday practice for Formula 1’s Canadian Grand Prix.
Perez finished only 11th in Friday’s second session, which was topped by Red Bull team-mate Max Verstappen.
“Unfortunately, there is not much we can read into the sessions today, to really work the car out you need to get good pace and then work from there, which I couldn’t do today,” he said.
“We had an issue with the set-up on our low fuel runs but luckily we managed to figure it out and the long runs were a bit more representative but still we had a bit of an issue – hopefully tomorrow we can sort everything out.
“I am a bit on the back foot but, all being well tonight, we are able to make the right compromises to be competitive tomorrow.
“We will see what the weather does for qualifying tomorrow because it could really shake things up.
“Max looks strong so that gives me the hope we can make my car competitive when it matters on Saturday.”
Verstappen, who has taken only one pole position from eight attempts this season, believes that he can unearth more one-lap pace.
“It was a positive day, of course there are always things that you can look at to try and find the complete balance, but overall today was a good start to the weekend,” he said.
“The softest compound is always the hardest one to nail, so I think there’s definitely more time to find in that, even then we have a competitive car so that’s good.
“The long run was good, it’s still hard on tyres around here so there’s still a few things to work on. Even with the things I want to improve, it was still a good day.”
