“I really hope Lewis doesn’t get me” – Sergio Perez is ready to stop Lewis Hamilton from overtaking him and closing on his Red Bull teammate Max Verstappen during the Turkish Grand Prix.
Lewis Hamilton finished fastest in Saturday’s qualifying in Turkey but will start P11 after a ten-place grid penalty for using Mercedes’ fourth Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) this season.
He will naturally look to overtake the cars ahead of him to get to arch-rival Max Verstappen, who starts P2. Verstappen’s teammate Sergio Perez will start P6, and has resolved to make it difficult for Hamilton to get past him.
I really hope Lewis doesn’t get me.
“That I make enough progress early on in the race, that and I am able to be with the leaders. That would be good for me tomorrow.
“I will treat Lewis like any other rival out there. I will do the best possible job for myself and not make it easy for anyone.”
🗣 “I believe if we can get a good clean run into turn one then we will be looking good for the rest of the race and a podium could be possible.” @SChecoPerez on #TurkishGP qualifying 🇹🇷👉 https://t.co/bklybvs1DJ pic.twitter.com/dTMIjiMvEH
— Red Bull Racing Honda (@redbullracing) October 9, 2021
Sergio Perez optimistic for Red Bull in Turkey
Red Bull has looked short of pace as compared to Mercedes, but Perez is happy with their outing so far this weekend, and is confident of putting up a solid show tomorrow, in their bid to wrestle the world championships from Mercedes.
“At times we’ve shown very good pace. It was just that final run in Q3 on the new tyre was a misfortune.
“We only had one set available for us in Q3, and I didn’t improve anything. I picked up quite a lot of rear grip, and I had quite a lot of understeer and that made things quite hard.
“Given how short the gaps are around here, it made the difference, but I’m optimistic. We showed good pace on the long runs and with the changes we’ve made to race pace, I should be able to come through.”
