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Sergio Perez thanked his lucky stars for not crashing his Red Bull RB 18 during the qualifying session of the 2022 F1 Azerbaijan GP.
The Mexican came into contact with some of the barriers around the Baku City Circuit while trying to push his car to the limit in an effort to topple Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc for pole.
When asked about his brush with the aforementioned barriers in the post-qualifying press conference, Perez said:
“I hit it quite hard a few times, but it seems to be very strong, the car this year. Yeah, on my first lap I just pushed too hard in qualifying. I mean, I was lucky not to crash because I was just over the limit a bit too much. Just trying too much. And yeah, it wasn’t ideal, but then we managed to put it all together in the final lap.”
Sergio Perez was held up in the Red Bull garage owing to a refuelling miscalculation and missed out on getting a tow around the track from his teammate Max Verstappen. This is crucial around a circuit that is dominated by long straights.
Ultimately, the 32-year-old was 0.3 seconds behind Leclerc's time at the top of the chart. When asked if a tow would have been enough to overcome the deficit against Ferrari, Sergio Perez said:
“I think when you look back at it, it looks quite big. You know, to gain three tenths is probably too much. Probably realistically I don’ t think pole was achievable today, but certainly we could have been a quite a bit closer, you know, but I was on my own and that seemed to be quite costly around here, especially on the back straight. Not having a tow from the cars ahead, I could just see my delta, losing lap time through it. Basically through all the straights I was losing quite a bit of time. But I mean, P2, I think we can still race from here. I think we should be strong tomorrow in the race. And hopefully we can keep Charles [Leclerc] under pressure.”
Re-signing Sergio Perez was a 'no-brainer' for Red Bull, according to team boss Christian Horner
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner confessed that holding onto Sergio Perez was a 'no-brainer' for the team, given his performances since joining at the start of 2021.
In a statement released after Sergio Perez extended his deal to stay with the team until the end of the 2024 campaign, Horner said:
“Since joining Oracle Red Bull Racing, Checo [Sergio Perez] has done a fantastic job. Time and again he has proved himself to not only be a magnificent team player but as his level of comfort has grown he has become a real force to be reckoned with at the sharp end of the grid. This year he has taken another step and the gap to World Champion Max has closed significantly, evidenced by his superb pole position in Jeddah earlier this year and by his wonderful win in Monaco just last weekend. For us, holding onto his pace, race craft and experience was a no-brainer and we are delighted that Checo will continue to race for the team until 2024. In partnership with Max we believe we have a driver pairing that can bring us the biggest prizes in F1.”
Horner also feels Red Bull can give Ferrari a hard time come race day at the 2022 F1 Azerbaijan GP.
