"It's been a good recovery"- Sergio Perez satisfied with P3 after 'struggling' in his 'worst weekend' at 2022 F1 French GP

In an interesting qualifying session ahead of the 2022 F1 French Grand Prix, Sergio Perez set the third fastest pace this Saturday and is set to start the race behind Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen.

Perez, however, admitted that he has had a rather underwhelming weekend so far at Circuit Paul Ricard. In a post-qualifying interview in parc fermé, the Red Bull driver said:

“It’s been a good recovery. I’ve been nowhere the whole weekend to be honest. I’ve been struggling a lot and it’s probably been my worst weekend up until qualifying. Finally we managed to recover well in qualy.”

Red Bull boss Christian Horner admitted early on that qualifying was not necessarily a priority this weekend, given that the track allows for overtaking that can certainly give both drivers a shot at a win tomorrow.

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Sergio Perez no longer a "shadow" to Max Verstappen, says former world champion

Former F1 world champion Emerson Fittipaldi recently claimed that Sergio Perez has proven himself to be a real contender for the 2022 world championship title. Claiming that the Mexican is not necessarily here to play the role of the second driver at Red Bull, he said:

“I’m sure both Max Verstappen and [Sergio] Checo Perez will be strong contenders. In my opinion, Perez, he is growing, he’s getting more self-confidence, he’s getting stronger and stronger on every Grand Prix. If his mindset this weekend is fixed to win, he has the talent, he has the speed to win.’’

“I think he’s going to give a hard time to Max from now on. I have this feeling because he’s extremely self-confident now. He knows he has the talent, the speed and he’s not anymore a shadow to Max. He’s reality. He’s there. He’s a contender, he’s strong.’’

Sergio Perez has more or less had a consistently strong season so far, barring some of Red Bull's worrying reliability issues at the start of the year, with the highlight being his glorious win at the 2022 F1 Monaco Grand Prix. He currently stands third in the drivers' standings with a 57-point deficit to the championship leader Max Verstappen.