Sergio Perez continued his nightmare run of form in the Austrian GP qualifying sessions as he failed to reach Q3 once more in Austria. F1 pundit Jolyon Palmer, however, believes that all of it is Perez’s own doing.
This is the fourth time in a row that Perez has missed out on the final part of qualifying. The last time this happened to Red Bull was 15 years back in 2008 when David Coulthard set a similar record.
The Austrian GP qualifying was going pretty well for Perez as he finished Q1 just behind Verstappen in second place. However, come Q2, Perez failed to put together a single lap within the track limits.
The Mexican did three laps in total, and all of the times were deleted because of track limit infringements. On the last run, Perez did a lap good enough to get him to P2. However, right after the chequered flag was waved, the lap time was deleted by the stewards, sending Perez down to P15, from where he will start the race on Sunday.
Sergio Perez comes under the scrutiny of Jolyon Palmer
The Mexican driver went into the Austrian GP with a huge amount of pressure on his shoulders. With rising speculations about losing his F1 seat, Perez needed to put in a performance, and yet, he failed once more.
Jolyon Palmer spoke about Perez’s performance during the Post-Qualifying Show and explained that it was simply poor from the Red Bull driver. “3 laps in Q2, he didn’t do one within the white line. Every lap could have been good enough to get through. So I mean, it’s pretty sloppy to do that when you are in the fastest car,” explained Palmer.
He continued and explained that Perez was in much better form than he had been in the last few races. “Yet he has let himself down there just by going over track limits in different places,” claimed Palmer.
Palmer finished it off by saying that Perez cannot afford to perform at this level when his teammate is claiming consecutive pole positions in the same machinery.
The Quali Curse for Sergio Perez
Perez’s poor run of form started off in Monaco when he crashed out in Q1 and had to start from the back of the grid. The Spanish GP saw Perez finish Qualifying in P11, just missing out on Q3.
As for the Canadian GP, Perez fell short of the mark yet again as he claimed P12 in Qualifying. It was the same old story in Austria. The fact that Perez got himself into P2 before his time was deleted makes it even more evident that he has a car capable of getting him close to Verstappen. However, poor performances and major mistakes have been the highlights for Sergio Perez this year.
