Once again, Sergio Perez failed to reach the third and most important part of qualifying. While his teammate Max Verstappen captured his fifth consecutive pole, the Mexican was stuck in Q1 this time in position 16. Perez thus faces another catch-up race if he wants to grab important points for the constructors' championship.
Verstappen showed at Silverstone how strong the Red Bull is in his hands, while Perez thus failed to exploit the car's potential at all for the fifth time in a row. "I don't know why it went wrong today, but with our car you should normally get into Q3," Verstappen told GPblog and others afterwards.
The follow-up question was what does the Dutchman think the team thought of Perez's yet another non-performance? "You have to ask Helmut [Marko] or Christian [Horner] that," Verstappen continued. He then said, laughing a little, "Of course we are fighting for the team championship too, but I think I can do that on my own at the moment. "
Verstappen injured his hand
That Verstappen gets to start from the front starting position again on Sunday is extra clever because of a minor injury he is struggling with. "I sprained my finger. Yesterday it bothered me a bit, today it went better. At first I couldn't squeeze my hand properly."
Verstappen does not fear that the slight injury will cause problems during Sunday's Grand Prix. "It happened on Thursday morning. And soon the adrenaline kicks in again. When I'm driving, I don't think about it. Yesterday it was worse."