Perez looks up to Verstappen: 'Max shows what the car is capable of'.

For Sergio Perez, qualifying for the Bahrain Grand Prix will be difficult to look back on. While he couldn't get his Red Bull past P11, he saw his teammate Max Verstappen take pole position convincingly. The Red Bull Racing Mexican gambled on the medium tyre in the second part of qualifying, but it didn't work out.

That's why Perez sat in the garage in Q3, while Red Bull managed to grab pole. "We all know what level Max is at. He's really extremely good. His weekend has also just been really solid and he hasn't put a foot wrong yet," explained Perez at Motorsport.com. The Mexican may not have been able to get the result himself, but the Dutchman's result still gives him confidence.

Perez serves as help for Verstappen

"That's definitely encouraging. Not only for me, but for the whole team. Max has shown what our car is capable of". Perez will therefore certainly be a threat to the midfield in the opening stages and a top classification is indeed the Mexican's goal.

"Yes that's the goal. To get to the front and limit the damage. It will be a long race and a long season. I can use every kilometre". For Red Bull, it would be beneficial if Perez can find a way to P4 as soon as possible to still play a significant role in the strategic duel with Mercedes."I'm optimistic for the race. The long runs looked really good, so we should have good speed," Prez concluded.