Red Bull take Perez engine penalty after poor qualifying

Sergio Perez will start from the pit lane for the Dutch Grand Prix following a power unit change.

The Mexican was eliminated from the first session of qualifying at Zandvoort after he was unable to reach the start line to begin his final timed lap, finishing 16th.

After being involved in the first lap carnage at the Hungarian Grand Prix last month, Perez and Red Bull were aware an engine penalty would need to be taken for exceeding the allowed allocation of three.

At the Belgian Grand Prix last weekend, team principal Christian Horner stated the team would wait until the calendar for the remainder of the season was fixed before making any decisions on where to take a penalty strategically.

It seems that Perez's poor qualifying at a circuit where overtaking is expected to be difficult has forced the hands of the team, with the decision to take the hit now effectively causing no unnecessary pain.

The team has taken a complete PU change with all components being swapped out, although the energy store is of a different specification to the previous part and will result in a pit lane start.

Perez's team-mate Max Verstappen starts on pole in front of his home crowd.

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