Marko predicts a difficult race for Perez, starting from the back of the grid
At the end of the qualifications, Helmut Marko revealed that Sergio Pérez's problem did not come from reliability issues like in Free Practice 3. Additionally, he predicts a difficult race for him.
A qualifying session to forget for Sergio Perez. The Mexican driver was unable to set a fast lap time, after going off track in the early minutes of Q1, due to an engine issue. As a result, the Red Bull driver starts from the back of the grid, in 20th position. But according to Helmut Marko, the problem was not only with the car.
It is difficult for Sergio Pérez to hide his disappointment after the qualifying session. The Mexican had an extremely tough day, with brake issues on his car: “It was a terrible day. We already had this problem in FP3,” said the Mexican. “We thought we had fixed it, but obviously we didn’t, so I really hope we can fix it tomorrow, otherwise it will be really difficult to race like this,” he confessed.
For Marko, the problem is not the car
The head of the Red Bull young drivers confirms the problems encountered by Perez: Sergio had already had issues with the engine settings during FP3, declares the consultant to Sky Sports. But for him, this incident made the driver less confident during his track outing, which could have led to his spin: Maybe the settings weren’t optimal, but he wasn’t sure of himself, he was impetuous. On the first lap, it was even smoother, the tires were colder, and all of this combined to make him slide, unfortunately, thinks the Austrian. The Mexican will start last on the grid and will have to make a comeback to stay in touch with Verstappen in the championship. For Marko, such a performance on this circuit will be complicated: On this circuit, it’s very difficult to overtake. So if we can still score points in this race, we should already be happy, the Austrian contentedly states.
