Sergio Perez will start Saturday’s Spielberg Sprint race from seventh place on the grid, which he doesn’t think is a fair reflection of his form today which he believes was the fault of Alpine rival Esteban Ocon.
The Red Bull driver finished qualifying over a second behind his team mate Max Verstappen who claimed pole for tomorrow ahead of McLaren pair Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri.
But Perez explained that everyone had been given only a single chance of setting a flying lap time in the final round, and that the timing of his release from pit lane had compromised his out lap.
Perez left the garage with just under three minutes left on the clock and only a few seconds behind Verstappen. But that difference put him between the Alpines of Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly.
By the time he crossed the pit lane exit line, Perez had only 90 seconds to start his push lap. “We might need a slightly faster out-lap here,” Perez was told by race engineer Hugh Bird, adding: “We are a bit tight here”.
Perez was told he was five seconds unsafe as he went through turn 3, and three-and-a-half seconds unsafe as he approached turn 6. “You’re on the bubble here, you can’t back out,” he was told at the penultimate corner.
He started his flying lap with three seconds to spare but at the cost of being one second behind Ocon who had backed off from Verstappen. “I don’t know what Ocon was doing,” Bird told Perez. “I don’t know why Ocon left 14 seconds.”
“This guy is such an idiot,” Perez complained over the team radio in reply. He used more temperate language later when talking with the media in the paddock at the Red Bull Ring.
“I think we were making good progress from the start during the first session and in to Sprint qualifying,” he said. “For circumstances that are out of our control, we didn’t end up where we needed to be.
“We were in the mix today, but unfortunately couldn’t really show it especially in SQ3 with Esteban in front.
“He left a very big gap in front of him and in the end, we were going to the limit against time and I crossed the line with around a second difference.
“It’s a shame because we had promising pace today, but unfortunately we were not able to maximise on this because of circumstances out of our control.
“I’m confident that tomorrow will be a better day, and that we can make up some ground here at our home race,” he added.
Red Bull team boss Christian Horner shared his driver’s frustration. “I don’t know why Ocon backed you into his team mate,” he told Perez on the cool-down lap. “That was a good effort considering your track position.”
Ocon’s driving did not breach any of the regulations so there were no grounds to complain to the race stewards for impeding, and the team simply had to accept the outcome of the session.
“It was a disappointing run for Checo, especially after getting boxed in by Esteban, as there was no chance for him to get a representative lap,” Horner lamented.
“Going into SQ3 we thought he would be top five, which is a shame,” he added. “However, this track is good for overtaking with a few good long straights.
“It’s going to be very hot tomorrow so that should throw up some challenges for all the cars on the grid.
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