Perez reveals what caused his retirement from the Qatar Grand Prix
Having displayed an improved performance in qualifying, Red Bull racer Sergio Perez was looking for scoring a valuable points haul at Lusail, but a mistake under the second safety car intervention forced him to retire from action.
Following a low-key showing in Qatar F1 Sprint, Max Verstappen bounced back with an eye-catching performance in the main qualifying for Sunday’s Qatar Grand Prix. The newly-crowned four-time world champion looked strong from the get-go, with Red Bull having made several tweaks to his RB following the sprint race.
The Dutchman needed a quick lap in the dying seconds of Q3 to beat George Russell, which he was able to deliver to secure his first pole position since the Austrian Grand Prix.
However, he was stripped of his pole position for a yellow flag incident. The Dutchman was upset by the decision, but he regained the lead at the start of the race, and did not let the victory slip through his fingers despite three safety car interventions.
His team-mate Sergio Perez made a decent getaway this time and was running in the points for much of the race. Although he was unable to replicate the enormous pace Verstappen was dictating at the front, the second safety car intervention put him into a very promising position.
However, he lost control of his RB20 at the second Safety Car restart, spinning off and retiring on a weekend which would have been vital for his future at the Milton Keynes-based outfit.
“Things were looking good at the time for me, I was sitting in P5 and we were in the mix for the podium. Then as I was warming up the tyre, getting ready for the restart, I had a massive over delivery as I was picking up the throttle out of turn 12.
"With cold tyres I couldn’t control it, it basically meant I lost the car and then lost drive from that point onwards. It is quite disappointing to end up like this. There were some positive signs for me this weekend with performance and I think we have learnt a lot from the car this weekend and found good direction.
"I think the season hasn’t been great for me, there has been a lot of up and downs and we have a few things to review there. We are all in this together as a Team and we are trying to get our season back on track, hopefully Abu Dhabi can do that and we can have a strong weekend," the Mexican concluded.
