After a poor P11 grab at the qualifying, Sergio Pérez continued his ‘below-par’ run at Sunday’s 2024 Imola GP. The Mexican racer coped with a P8 finish, while his partner Max Verstappen ran off as the ‘pole-sitter’.
However, after the race, ‘Checo’ came out to rev his mouth with some surprising words for his P8 finish at Imola.
Sergio Pérez calls P8 as ‘maximum’ for him at 2024 Imola GP
Starting from P11, Pérez kicked off his Imola sprint on hard tires in an attempt to exploit any timely safety car intervention. He was one of the three drivers to opt for the hard compound, while the rest started with mediums. But, the Mexican suffered a ‘gravel excursion’ on Lap 18, losing valuable seconds in the process.
After putting on the medium rubbers on Lap 38, ‘Checo’ managed to retain his P11 spot. Then, he put on a hard fight to overtake Nico Hülkenberg and Yuki Tsunoda for eighth place.
Asked whether the result was the best he could manage, he replied by calling his P8 the “maximum” he could get from the P11 start.
“Yeah, I think pretty much it was the maximum we could have achieved, given where we started.”
During the race, his ‘start with hard tires’ strategy failed to materialize as the whole race ran uninterrupted, virtual or otherwise. He admitted that it was a “risky” strategy in the post-race interview.
“We risked it, we knew that it was a very risky strategy and the teams were not favouring that strategy.”
Red Bull were hoping for a safety car intervention, noting how challenging the Imola circuit can get. Pérez opened up on this failed strategy:
“But we were dreaming a bit with the [possibility of a] Safety Car at the right point for us, and also I think it was really bad.”
However, he fell for the gravel traps at Turn 16, causing him a 6-7 seconds loss in his lap time.
“Going off, I was playing with the balance to try and protect a little bit the rear axle, and I just went straight into Turn 16. That meant that I feel like I picked up some damage, and that compromised also the race. I lost six, seven seconds, and that put me really close to people behind.”
In the end, Pérez managed to build up on his P11 start for an eight-placed finish. He crossed the chequered flag with a 1:26:20.028 lap time- 54.776 seconds later than Max Verstappen.
As a result of this P8 finish, Sergio Pérez now sits at 3rd place in the 2024 Driver Standings with 107 points.
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