Perez finds advantage on race pace in Portugal

Red Bull Racing failed to get ahead of the two Mercedes during qualifying for the 2021 Portuguese Grand Prix. But the Austrian team lock out the second row of the grid and will therefore be hunting down Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas ahead of the first corner. Perez remains optimistic with their race pace.

"Not the greatest qualifying, a bit messy in terms of finding my rhythm and the grip. I never got on top of the car," Perez told Sky Sports after the qualifying session.

Both Perez and Verstappen had a quicker average lap time during the race simulations from FP2 on Friday. Perez looks at this with hope that his team can outperform the seven-time world champions on Sunday.

"Not everything worked but at least we have a good starting position and hopefully tomorrow we are able to put pressure onto the Mercedes and fight for the podium. Our race pace seems better than our single lap. I think there is a great opportunity tomorrow to get there," Perez added.