Marcel Kiefer has recently called out the luck factor labeled against Sergio Perez after he claimed the pole position in the Miami Grand Prix qualification on Saturday. The Mercedes eSports champion isn’t willing to give all the credit to luck on Perez’s advantage over Max Verstappen on Sunday.
Stating this, the F1 eSports 2020 Teams World Champion wrote on his personal Twitter handle that it wasn’t luck who acted in favor of the Mexican. He then focused on Verstappen’s mistake on the first run, which his teammate didn’t.
Yes, Checo probably wouldn’t have been on pole if Max would have gotten his final run in.
It wasn‘t luck. Max made a mistake on his first run, Checo didn‘t – hence why Checo was safe in case of a final run red flag. I get people saying it was lucky, but it actually wasn‘t really…
— Marcel Kiefer (@marcelkiefer_) May 6, 2023
Kiefer added that the 33-year-old put on a fiery lap just to be safe in case of any red flag, which the Dutchman couldn’t. Adding these, he addresses that people calling him lucky should stop because he “actually wasn’t lucky.”
Perez was handed over the pole position on Saturday after Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc went off the road and hit a barrier in Sector 1. As the Monegasque hit the wall with just two minutes to spare, the stewards called for a red flag and eventually suspended the session, leaving the defending champion in P9.
Despite the pole, the Miami GP qualification was the worst for Perez
Despite having the pole position, the Mexican driver shared that the qualifying session was the “worst” for him. Speaking about this, the 33-year-old said per Sky Sports that it had been his worst weekend up to qualifying.
Perez revealed that he couldn’t figure out how to put the extra tenths together. The Mexican race driver was missing out on the said margin to the Ferraris and his teammate Verstappen.
POLE POSITION!!!
Thank you for your support. Tomorrow I will give everything!!
Gracias por su apoyo. Mañana lo daré todo!!! #sp11 🏁 #MiamiGP pic.twitter.com/P7Oobfrxrj
— Sergio Pérez (@SChecoPerez) May 6, 2023
However, the 33-year-old driver said he put on a fine lap when it mattered. After struggling initially, he managed to reset everything and made a small change into qualifying, which did the work for him, the former Racing Point driver concluded.
Verstappen upset with him after P9
The Dutchman was upset with himself after Leclerc’s crash ended his qualifying improvement, as per Junaid Samodien. Talking about this after the session concluded, the two-time world champion blamed himself for trying to push on the limit.
Admittedly, Verstappen pushed for a fine lap just after the start of Q3. However, he lost control of his car twice and, ultimately, had to abort the lap. He then returned to the garage to come for one final lap at the end.
But the final push remained out of sight as he had nobody to blame himself, revealed the Dutch pilot. Max Verstappen further added that he made it difficult for himself as he expects a tough race on Sunday.
