Sergio Perez had a nightmare Qualifying session in Austria after he was knocked out in Q2 once again. Team Principal Christian Horner was quite evidently frustrated after the session and claimed that he was very frustrated with the Mexican’s performance.
Red Bull had yet another mixed Qualifying session where one of their drivers claimed the pole position, and the other was able to get into Q3. The worst part is, this has happened four times in a row. Ever since the Monaco GP, Max Verstappen has claimed pole positions in all the races, with Perez failing to reach Q3 on all four occasions.
Perez has his lap time deleted again 👀
The Mexican driver is out in Q2 ❌#AustrianGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/uYpLmE4Rq2
— Formula 1 (@F1) June 30, 2023
A similar thing happened at the Austrian GP, where Perez was demoted to P15 after failing to keep his car inside track limits during Q2. All of his lap times were deleted, and the Mexican was knocked out. To rub salt in his wounds, Verstappen pipped Charles Leclerc by a meager 0.048 seconds to take pole position.
Christian Horner cannot celebrate Verstappen’s pole position due to Sergio Perez
Christian Horner was extremely dejected following the Qualifying session in Austria. Even though one of his cars had claimed pole position, Horner said that the feeling of joy was incomplete for him.
Horner exclaimed that Perez had the pace today to get on the front row. Perez was closely following Verstappen’s times but he failed to do the one thing that his team asked of him – “stay in the white lines.”
Sergio Perez has failed to get into Q3 for the fourth race in a row in that Red Bull 👀📉 pic.twitter.com/ib7DxOLCBe
— ESPN F1 (@ESPNF1) June 30, 2023
“Just hugely frustrating because he could have been there, he could have done it,” said Horner. Horner also mentioned that Perez’s early exit from Quali meant that he could not even celebrate Verstappen’s pole position. “It’s fantastic that we got the pole, but it feels incomplete,” said the Red Bull team boss.
Perez’s underperformance in 2023
Sergio Perez has been putting in lackluster performances ever since he finished second in Miami. After that, he failed to finish in the top 3 in three consecutive races, all of which have been won by his teammate, Verstappen.
Four races into the 2023 season, Perez and Verstappen were tied on race wins with both of them having two to their names. However, as of now, Perez has 126 points to his name, while Verstappen is leading the pack with a whopping 195 points.
Recent qualifying results:
Albon – 🇲🇨P13, 🇪🇸P18, 🇨🇦P10, 🇦🇹P10
Perez – 🇲🇨P20, 🇪🇸P11, 🇨🇦P12,🇦🇹P15 pic.twitter.com/2UvEW2Pj7g
— ESPN F1 (@ESPNF1) June 30, 2023
Perez has a lot of work to do if he wants to put up even a distant fight with his teammate. Recovering from P15 on Sunday would be the first priority at the moment.