It was not Sergio Perez's day. After a spin in the latter part of qualifying, the Mexican gave himself just one lap to set a time in Q3. Red Bull Racing advisor Helmut Marko is not happy.
Old strategy can be binned
"We had already hoped that we could use him in the strategy," Marko said of Perez after qualifying with Sky Deutschland. According to Marko, Perez chose at a late stage to use the same set-up as Max Verstappen.
"In the end, he chose the same set-up as Max, but maybe that's why he had too short a time to acclimatise to the new set-up," the 78-year-old Austrian revealed. "Because of the spin in the first attempt in Q3, of course, he had a handicap."
Perez to deploy in a different way
Despite the disappointing eighth starting position, Marko believes there are still opportunities to deploy Perez smartly on Sunday. "As I said, he's a good tyre whisperer. Maybe we can do something with that," he concludes.