Sergio Perez says he only expects to improve his form following his third-place qualifying result at the Circuit of the Americas.
Perez looked to be in contention for pole position throughout qualifying on Saturday, but had to settle for the spot behind team-mate Max Verstappen and Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton.
Qualifying has been a weak point of Perez this year, with the US session marking just the third time in 2021 that the 13-time podium finisher has finished Saturday’s outing inside the top three.
“I think I knew it was all down to the final chance, how much I was able to find,” Perez said reflecting on his session.
“I think I was on pretty good lap, I think Turn 1 itself I was able to find a couple of tenths, I just couldn’t keep it up completely through the lap.
“I [was] needing the 100% out of the car today, Max did a fantastic job, so did Lewis, we finished where we deserve today I think.
“I think we are in a good position, I think it’s going to be a pretty long race tomorrow, not too concerned about the qualifying, I think there is plenty of opportunities for tomorrow.”
Perez has already been re-signed by Red Bull for next year, and says that he can take confidence from the weekend going forward.
“Starting the weekend [strongly], it shows just how hard we’re working behind the scenes to get on top of the car, together with my engineers, we haven’t had the year we were hoping,” Perez said.
“The adaptation has been longer than expected but we’ve been working flat out and yeah, we can see the progress and I can just expect to keep getting better.”
