Checo Pérez has been at a great level so far this weekend at the Baku circuit, having led the first and third free practice sessions and being second in the other practice.
In qualifying, the Mexican was second in Q1, just 0.011 behind his teammate, Max Verstappen, and then finished top of the table in Q2 by 0.091 over Charles Leclerc, his main rival for pole as we saw on Friday. .
At the time of the definitive Q3, Sergio Pérez did not manage to close an ideal lap in his first attempt, which left him third after the first run on the track, while in the second he appeared a little after the Ferraris and Verstappen, when he should have done it in front of his teammate.
Pérez managed to improve his time on the second lap to move up to second, falling just under three tenths off the mark Leclerc took pole with.
In the interview after qualifying in Parc Fermé, the Red Bull driver revealed that his delayed start on track at the end of Q3 was due to a failure in his power unit and that, riding alone, he ended up losing a little of time.
“In the first start is where you put everything. I touched the wall a couple of times. Luckily, we managed to survive, which is really a key here”, commented Pérez reviewing this Saturday’s session.
“But it wasn’t an ideal qualifying because at the end we had a problem with the engine. We couldn’t start it. And that meant we lost…because I had to ride basically alone, and that’s very important here. Who knows if it’s enough for the pole, but we certainly lost a few tenths. But I also think Charles did a very good lap.”
Looking ahead to Sunday’s race in Baku, where Pérez won in 2021 with Red Bull and added two other podium finishes, in 2016 and 2018, the driver from Guadalajara stressed that mistakes cannot be made.
“I think there’s a very long race ahead of us tomorrow. So we have to make sure we’re there. It’s a very long race, you know, so at any moment you can make a mistake and it’s over,” he said.
Photos of Checo Pérez in Baku
Foto de: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Simon Galloway/Motorsport Images
Photo by: Simon Galloway/Motorsport Images
Photo by: Simon Galloway/Motorsport Images
Photo by: Glenn Dunbar/Motorsport Images
Foto de: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Simon Galloway/Motorsport Images
Photo by: Simon Galloway/Motorsport Images
Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Simon Galloway/Motorsport Images
Photo by: Simon Galloway/Motorsport Images
Photo by: Simon Galloway/Motorsport Images
Photo by: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Mark Sutton/Motorsport Images
Photo by: Mark Sutton/Motorsport Images
