“We should have a faster race pace” - Sergio Perez reflects on Las Vegas GP qualifying after failing to reach Q3

Sergio Perez feels that Red Bull got caught out ending the qualifying session of the Las Vegas GP early. Speaking after the qualifying session, the Mexican was optimistic that their anticipated race pace would be better than their qualifying performance.

Knocked out of the second qualifying session with the 12th fastest lap time, Perez will start 11th on the grid. He was promoted to 11th after Carlos Sainz was handed a 10-place grid drop for changing the components on his car.

Asked by Sportskeeda if he had more confidence in his race pace to help him surge through the field during a press interaction, Sergio Perez said:

“Yeah we should be able to have a lot faster race pace than qualifying pace. So hopefully that will bring us forward tomorrow.”

On how he felt the race would pan out, he added:

“I think deg could be potentially really high out there so plenty of things to look at tomorrow and we will see what we are able to come out with.”

Asked if it was his own call or the team strategy that got him knocked out of the session, erez said:

“No, we had a strategy for before qualifying with the team. And obviously we dont know this place and we were thinking what to, what was the best program and we went this route.

“Obviously, after that its easy to know it was the wrong call. Already in Q1, we were a bit lucky to get through because we didn’t get our final lap coming back to the pits. And then in Q2, we were finishing the session a bit to early, meant that there was some evolution still on the track and we were in the pits.”

Perez believes their race pace will be competitive enough to help him improve but felt that tyre degradation will be key to managing his pace throughout the race.

---

Sergio Perez feels grip levels at the Las Vegas circuit cost Red Bull severely

Sergio Perez added that grip levels at the Las Vegas circuit weren’t consistent and beneficial to Red Bull.

He felt they lost a lot of time in tyre warm up and were one of the few who got caught out on the wrong strategy. Perez admitted being unsure of the amount of time spent out on track in the session but complained about lacking overall pace.

Sportskeeda asked him for feelings on the grip levels around the new street venue, and he replied:

“It was getting better, but obviously the grip level is not doing great around this place.”

Asked if he underestimated the track evolution at the track, he said:

“I wasn’t aware that much that we were going to finish that early. But also we didn’t seem to have the ultimate temp in it today, so we were lacking a bit of pace out there.”

Perez also went on to explain the tyre warm up issues in the qualifying session, adding:

“Yeah it hasn’t been straightforward. I think you saw I qualifying people doing different type of program. Some people got caught out with it and we were one of them.”

Leading Lewis Hamilton by 32 points, Sergio Perez is just about hanging on to second place in the driver’s championship with two rounds left to the calendar. With the Briton starting ahead of him in the Las Vegas GP, it will be critical for Perez to finish ahead of him and keep him at bay.

Red Bull have admitted that they wish to post a 1-2 finish in the driver’s championship, a feat they haven't achieved since their inception as a team. Losing second place could also cast doubt on Perez's future, according to speculation and numerous reports.