Perez has explanation for P4: 'Verstappen got my rear wing after FP3'

Sergio Perez seemed to have strong pace all weekend, but during qualifying it didn't go quite as planned. The Mexican does have an explanation for this, however. Before qualifying Red Bull Racing's mechanics were working on the rear wings of both cars and Perez believes this is the reason for his slightly slow qualifying.

Red Bull had in fact swapped the rear wing of both cars. "The car was not the same after the third free practice because we had to change the rear wing, but also because we had made some changes," Perez explained to the Spanish branch of Motorsport.com.

Problems caused the change

"Max had a problem with his rear wing in the third free practice and they gave me his wing. I don't know what it is, but since Q1 the car suddenly felt completely different". Verstappen drove qualifying with Perez's rear wing, which was in one piece, because according to Verstappen there were some cracks in his rear wing after FP3.

"It was broken after the third practice, so we had to fix that and it was as good as new at the start of qualifying," said the Dutchman. Whether Perez can keep up with the speed of the top three during the race remains to be seen. The late rear wing change will not help in any way.