Sergio Perez blamed multiple factors that contributed to him being eliminated in Q1 in Formula 1’s Monaco Grand Prix as he went from “finding the light” to “disaster”.
Red Bull had experienced struggles throughout the opening two practice sessions with its RB20, but Perez managed a late improvement in FP3 to rise into fifth place.
However, the Mexican still rued being “nowhere” on the radio, and he would succumb to another premature qualifying exit in Monaco as he classified in 18th position.
Despite being fitted with a new set of the Soft compound in the closing stages to ensure his progression, Perez ended up close to two-tenths behind the time needed.
Perez attributed his failure to advance into the second stage down to traffic on his opening run and then stricken advertising stickers on the track on his final push lap.
“It was a disaster because on my lap I encountered a lot of traffic into Turn 6, into 7 and there were some stickers down on the apex of 8 so I had to avoid all of that,” he said.
“I ended up losing a couple of tenths that would have been enough to get through. I was half a second off P1 so it was just a complete disaster, unfortunately.”
The 2022 Monaco GP winner has conceded that his weekend prospects are all but “over” due to the tight and twisting streets not leaning towards overtaking openings.
“And basically, the weekend is totally over because here there is no chance to overtake unfortunately,” he bemoaned.
“This morning we were finding the light. You know, I was P5. We made some more changes, but unfortunately, there were not enough to come through.
“And it hurts a lot, you know, because I think just by putting normal lap in, it would have been enough, but with the traffic that we encountered, it was really difficult.”
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