Sergio Perez makes incredible PROMISE despite another poor qualifying

Pérez in aanloop naar race in Canada — Photo: © LAT Images

Sergio Perez

Perez makes incredible PROMISE despite another poor qualifying

Sergio Perez could only manage a P9 finish in qualifying ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix

Harry Smith

Saturday 22 July 2023 18:32

Sergio Perez has set his target for the Hungarian Grand Prix, insisting that only a podium will do for him after qualifying P9 on Saturday.

The Mexican's weekend can be described as messy at best, having collided with the wall in FP1 and suffered a major lock-up in FP2.

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Checo will take some confidence into the race having ended a streak of five successive races without a Q3 appearance, but P9 isn't good enough given the machinery underneath him.

With Daniel Ricciardo punching in a P13 finish on his return to the sport in a much slower AlphaTauri, the pressure is on for Checo to execute a clean race on Sunday.

Podium aspirations for Perez

Speaking to Diego Mejia of Fox Sports MX after the qualifying session, Perez explained: "It was a very strange quali because we used all compounds and this made it more complicated,

"We even tried two different setups in Q3 to drop temperatures and this cost us.

"But we have a good car for the race tomorrow.”

Sergio Perez's weekend got off to the worst possible start in Hungary

Perez was then asked for his opinion on the Red Bull upgrade package, responding: "Complicated in this circuit. Definitely we’ll be doing better in faster circuits.”

The Mexican rounded off his interview by revealing his target for the Hungarian Grand Prix on Sunday.

When asked, he simply replied: "Podium, no doubt.”