Perez hopes to beat Verstappen: 'Would be nice to get back to the victory'

For Sergio Perez, Saturday went a lot better than Friday for now. The Mexican was eliminated in Q2 in qualifying for the GP, but managed to qualify in second place in the Sprint Shootout.

"Yeah, it was a good progress already today," said Perez, who was still lucky in the first qualifying session with a 14th time. "You know, we were P1 in Q1, and then conditions were drying up and we boxed and we couldn't get the final lap in and we were close to being knocked out already from Q1, you know."

Finally, Perez drove competitive times again in qualifying. "It's nice to finally show again what we are capable of. It was just a shame that we had already used all the tyres. I feel like we could have done a bit better in that regard, but never mind." The 33-year-old driver had to do his run in SQ3 on older tyres, while Verstappen still had a new set on the shelf.

Perez aiming for win

Max's teammate is hoping to head towards victory in the sprint race, just as he managed in Baku earlier this season. "It's nice to have a lockout in the Red Bull Ring for the team. It would be nice to get back to the victory."