Sergio Perez had a tough race in Austria last weekend. The Mexican driver finished seventh behind the Haas of Nico Hulkenberg.
[adrotate banner=”9″]
Get 10% off all official F1 Merch at TheRaceWorks.com using code ‘EF1‘ at checkout.
It was a Haas sandwich as Kevin Magnussen slipped behind in eighth. Looking at where Max Verstappen is taking his RB20, Checo is falling behind rather dramatically.
Perez is in the fortunate position to be driving what has been the best car for the past two years. Although McLaren has clearly proven a worthy competitor as of late, seeing Checo fifth in the standings shows a poor run of form.
The Spanish Grand Prix which begun this triple header was meant to be the reset point for Perez. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the reset he had hoped for, and neither was Austria.
He said: “Yeah, it was quite a tough weekend overall, especially the race with the damage we had in the car since lap one.
“Basically, we were just out of contention. There was nothing with these small margins that we’ve seen.
“It was just a bit too much damage, and we were just going backwards.”
Heading into the final race of the first triple header of the season, all eyes are on the battle between Red Bull and McLaren.
It ended in turmoil in Spielberg when Lando Norris and Verstappen collided into turn 3. Verstappen had to pit with a puncture and was handed a 10 second penalty. Even so, Perez finished 17 seconds behind the Dutch driver.
Now we are at Silverstone, a track where last year Norris overtook Verstappen into turn 1. Checo believes that his RB20 should feel good around the circuit, but it’s still super close.
He said: “I think it should be a strong weekend. We’re looking forward to this sort of high-speed content and Silverstone always throws a massive challenge.
“With the wind, it can be particularly challenging; I think it’s going to be all very close as it has been the last few weekends already… I don’t expect anything different.
“I think it’s going to be everything super tight and close.”
[adrotate banner=”9″]
Get 10% off all official F1 Merch at TheRaceWorks.com using code ‘EF1‘ at checkout.
Feature Image Credit: Mirror Online