Perez Out Of Q2 In Las Vegas Because Of Red Bull's Strategic Error

Saturday, 18 November 2023 at 20:00

Updated at Saturday, 18 November 2023 at 20:30

After a strategic error, Red Bull Racing F1 driver Sergio Perez fell out of the Las Vegas Strip Circuit Qualifying session.

Sergio Perez gained confidence after a recent few weekends, saying it is just a matter of time before he can show what he's got. Unfortunately, he could not show what he's got in the 2023 Las Vegas Grand Prix qualification.

The Mexican driver got pushed out of the top ten at the end of Q2 to finish in 12th place. Fortunately for him, his main Championship rival Lewis Hamilton on Mercedes finished in P11.

Sergio Perez went on his lap very early and could only watch from the pits as drivers on slower cars put in faster laps because of the track evolution. He told the media:

"We have a strategy for qualifying. Obviously, we don't know this place and we were thinking what was the best program, and we went with this route."

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The Red Bull driver went for a similar strategy in Q1 where he just made it work, but it turned out not to be the best choice later on.

"Already in Q1 we were lucky to get through because we didn't get our final lap. Then finishing the session a little bit too early, meant that there was some evolution still on the track."

Perez said he was not aware of how early he was going on his final flying lap. On the other hand, Red Bull cars are expected to perform better during the race so the Mexican driver will still get the chance to show what he's got.

"I wasn't aware that we were going to finish that early. We didn't seem to have the ultimate ten minutes today, so we were lacking a bit of pace. [Tyre] degradation could be potentially really high here. So there's plenty of things to look at, and then we will see what we are able to come out with."