Perez: 'I don't remember driving very well there'

After three consecutive podium finishes, Sergio Perez had to settle for fourth in Brazil. An unfortunate Virtual Safety Car perhaps prevented the Mexican from taking his fourth consecutive podium. The teammate of Max Verstappen will not be complacent and is already looking ahead to Qatar.

Bad luck in Brazil for Perez

Perez's failure to get on the podium on Sunday was due to the timing of the Virtual Safety Car, according to the Red Bull Racing driver. "Yes, we were unlucky not to be on the podium on Sunday, it was actually just bad luck," he said in his team's preview. During the Virtual Safety Car, Valtteri Bottas was able to do an undercut on the Mexican to get ahead of him.

Perez doesn't worry about it anymore. "This is racing and these things happen, so there's no point dwelling on it. I just have to move on and look to Qatar and get back on the podium there."

Coming back stronger in Qatar

As the third race of the tripleheader, Qatar is on the programme this weekend. "Qatar will be a very different circuit to Sao Paulo. Hopefully, we can be a lot stronger there, over the whole weekend. For me, it's also nice to get back to the normal qualifying format to see how we stand in terms of speed."

For many drivers, Qatar is a completely new circuit, but Perez drove there in GP2 in 2009. "I don't remember driving very well there. It was a long time ago so I don't think I can take much advantage of it." However, Perez does think Red Bull will be competitive here. "Hopefully we can make it difficult for Mercedes. It's a very fast circuit, with a lot of downforce. We'll see how fast we can be."