Sergio Perez hits out at Red Bull's 'unacceptable' issues after Australia chaos

Sergio Perez

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Perez hits out at Red Bull's 'unacceptable' issues after Australian GP chaos

The Mexican suffered a number of mechanical problems before fighting back to finish fifth in an incident-packed race

Dan Davis

Thursday 6 April 2023 21:15

Sergio Perez has criticised Red Bull's "unacceptable" mechanical errors after fighting back to finish fifth in the chaotic Australian Grand Prix.

The Mexican's weekend had been plagued by a series of issues that ultimately saw him begin the race from the pit lane, although he rallied, despite a number of red flags, and secured an impressive points finish.

Perez experienced problems during the third practice session on Saturday, having locked up through certain turns and even gone off the track, and he later crashed out of qualifying after beaching himself on the gravel just minutes into Q1.

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As a result, the drama was ended early. However, Perez then mounted a superb recovery on Sunday and took the chequered flag behind the top four.

But despite his resurgence, the 33-year-old instead voiced his disappointment.

'Totally unacceptable'

"It was really bad, very bad weekend," he told the media. "What happened on Saturday, it's totally unacceptable.

"We have to get to the bottom of it because I felt that we had a really good weekend up to yesterday [Saturday]."

Delivering his overall assessment of the race, Perez added: "Generally, it was a good result today. Yesterday, I obviously lost a bit of confidence with the car, but we made a lot of changes overnight so that helped heading into the race.

"I had a really good restart the first time, I jumped three or four places but then it was a bit of a mess with the DRS train.

"I was frustrated later in the race because I couldn’t advance any further, but it was so difficult to get through the field with tyre deg low and everyone going on to the hard tyres quickly.

"Maybe if I’d been a bit more aggressive earlier on, I could’ve finished higher, but I’m happy we finished P5 and even managed to secure the fastest lap."