Sky Sports analyst: "It wasn't the pit stop that lost Perez the race today"

Johnny Herbert argues that Sergio Perez has certainly made strides in Formula 1 in recent years, although qualifying needs to be better for the 31-year-old driver. Paul Di Resta is of the same opinion and demands improvement ahead of next weekend's Austrian Grand Prix.

"He has matured brilliantly over the last couple of years. He's in a team with a lot of pressure and expectations and he's been able to deliver. In the race he won in Baku, he drove brilliantly. Yeah, it wasn't the best qualifying for him, but he's going to improve as time goes by," Herbert said of Peréz's fifth time in qualifying at the Red Bull Ring.

Qualifying Perez must improve

Di Resta agrees, but the former Formula 1 driver is a little more critical and does think that the Mexican Red Bull driver could also have prevented a slightly longer pit stop from becoming so fatal to him. "It wasn't the pit stop that lost Perez the race today, it was the qualifying. He was down in 5th yesterday and got the jump from Bottas with the penalty. You need to do a job over both days." he believes at Sky Sports.

Additional pressure and performance

Over the next few days, Perez can work to ensure he sets a faster time on Saturday afternoon next week. "He's got another week to do it, he's in a great car. I guess for Sergio, he just has to keep ticking away at it because he knows he's probably got a stronger package than Mercedes when they come to the track. When you're the favourites there's added pressure and you need to perform. That's where Verstappen and Hamilton are able to extract more than the others" the analyst said.

Helmut Marko said after the Styrian Grand Prix that he was increasingly satisfied with the qualifying performance of Perez.