Sergio Perez finished Saturday’s qualifying in a disappointing 12th, setting him up for yet another challenging race, where he will be forced to do pretty much damage limitation.
The Mexican has failed to reach the top 10 in the last 3 occasions, resulting in him dropping massive chunk of points to his teammate Max Verstappen.
Speaking after the events, Perez pointed out that he was unable to get a lap with the soft tire in the changeable conditions.
“It didn’t work out,”said the Mexican.
“I mean, when we went onto the slick, it was just the lap that it started raining.
“I needed a lap to get the tire in the temperature in the working range, and then it just started raining, then we switched back to the intermediate, so it was all a bit half a lap, one lap a bit too late to get that lap in.”
It is a major blow to Perez title aspirations as he already sits 53 points off Verstappen, who is comfortably running away with the championship at this point.