Sergio Perez fell just short of a top-three finish during qualifying for the Brazilian Grand Prix. The Mexican finished fourth in Q3 and will therefore start Saturday's sprint race behind Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen and Valtteri Bottas.
The excellent race last week in Mexico tasted for Perez more this week. The Red Bull Racing driver was looking for a good starting position during qualifying. "I think we should be looking good for tomorrow," assessed Perez in conversation with Sky Sports. "The new engine seems to be working pretty good. Lewis was untouchable today, so we will see tomorrow."
According to Perez, it was not an easy qualifying session. "It was a bit tricky starting in Q1 having to use a set of tyres. We started a bit on the left foot in qualifying but progressing. The track cooled down a bit and we did not read the conditions really well until the last lap. We lacked half a tenth to be further ahead."
Hamilton faster than Verstappen
Verstappen was hoping to start the sprint race at the front ahead of the race weekend, but he was unable to prevent Hamilton from setting a faster time. The Dutchman fell more than four-tenths short of his rival.