Perez speaks about "difficult weekend" after disappointing qualifying

Force India’s car is not best suited to the Interlagos circuit it seems. The team have struggled during practice and had a tough time of it yesterday, reaching Q2 with both cars but going no further.

Sergio Perez qualified in P12 and Esteban Ocon in P13, although the Frenchman will start 18th after a five place penalty for changing his gearbox.

The team look set to stay in seventh place in the Constructors’ Championship unless Perez can surge into the top ten and score decent points, which is his aim.

Perez said: “It’s disappointing to miss out on Q3 by such a small margin. It’s been a difficult weekend so far, losing out on so much track time on a circuit where half a tenth can make a big difference.

“The truth is we weren’t as competitive as we expected to be, but I think we can still recover to have a strong race tomorrow.”

Perez refuses to give up despite the tough weekend so far, as he knows that anything can happen in the Brazilian Grand Prix.

He added: “The weather could still play a big part, so we’ll go out to try and make up some of the ground we lost today.”