While Max Verstappen will start tomorrow’s race in P4 following Nico Hulkenberg’s penalty, Sergio Perez will do so in P10.
Red Bull team principal, Christian Horner, did notice that the Mexican driver did advance to Q3, however, in what is rumoured to be his last qualifying outing for the Austian team.
Following the session, the Briton commented on Perez’s qualifying.
After having a rather on the limit Q1, with his first time being deleted due to track limits at turn 1, before the Stewards’ went back on their decision and reinstated Perez’s time, in Q2 he looked decisively off the pace with Charles Leclerc track limits offense demoting the Monegasque driver to the elimination zone, thus allowing Perez’ passage to Q3. However, in the third and final part of qualifying, the Mexican did not get beyond the slowest time of the session, being outperformed by Fernando Alonso and Valtteri Bottas. He will thus start the final race of the Formula 1 season on the fifth row of the grid.
To the media after qualifying, Perez stated that his result was a summary of his tough season. Horner reacted to the qualifying of the driver of the 11 car after the session: “I think that Checo to get to Q3 was a good thing, but It’s a long race tomorrow be great for him at the last race of the season to get a good result”.
Finally, Horner was asked if it was Perez’s last qualifying session in a Red Bull car. The British team principal seems to have got that very same question after every relevant session for the past few months. This time he was rather cautious in his response: “It’s the last race of the season. So let’s see what we can do”.