“Soul destroying” judgement after latest Sergio Perez gaffe

Sergio Perez created a brief ray of light amid the gloom on a day to forget in Qatar.

His error in the sprint race which irked Red Bull boss Christian Horner preceded a better qualifying run, where he finished ninth.

But the spotlight continues to shine on the under-fire Red Bull driver who could lose his race seat.

“I guess that’s all we can say, at this point. He made it through,” Naomi Schiff analysed for Sky Sports.

“He is still nine tenths off his teammate.

“Perez is an unhappy driver in that car. Something doesn’t gel. He doesn’t unlock the confidence within himself when piloting this car.

“It must be super frustrating. I can’t imagine what it’s like to turn up to work and constantly feel like you’re a second off the pace of your teammate.

“We struggle to find positive things to say.”

Anthony Davidson added: “It must be soul destroying.

“Every time he gets in the car, instead of thinking ‘maybe I will be on pole position’, he thinks ‘I wonder how far behind I will be’.

“The gap has got bigger even though the car has improved and become easier to drive.”

Christian Horner dismayed at Sergio Perez

Horner appeared briefly lost for words at Sergio Perez’s error in the sprint race in Qatar.

Perez qualified for the sprint at the F1 Qatar Grand Prix from 16th, owing to a poor session on Friday, then had to start from the pitlane for a parc ferme infringement.

The Red Bull driver was then overtaken by Williams’ Franco Colapinto, who also started in the pit lane, after a slow reaction to the green light.

Red Bull team principal Horner shook his head and, for a moment, struggled to find the right words to describe the mistake.

“I don’t know,” he told Sky Sports. “I need to have chat with him about him.

“It looked like he just misjudged it.”

Grinning awkwardly, Horner added: “But when the light goes out, you’re supposed to go…”

Perez finished the sprint race in 20th.

Red Bull turnaround in Qatar

“We’ve got a bit of a mountain to climb,” Horner sighed after a poor sprint race.

“You can turn things around, you can change the car…”

Red Bull then drew plaudits for somehow fixing their drab weekend in qualifying for the grand prix on Saturday.

Max Verstappen turned P6 in the sprint into unexpectedly claiming pole position in qualifying, although he was later hit with a one-place grid penalty for driving unnecessarily slowly.

Perez qualified for the grand prix in ninth which put his boss Horner in a better mood.

“He’s had a better session there. Getting into Q3 is a positive,” Horner told Sky Sports.

“The delta is still significant but it’s progress for Checo.

“Hopefully he has a good race and we’ll keep pushing as hard as we can until the chequered flag in Abu Dhabi.”

Perez said: “We have made good progress. I really hope we have pace in the main race to score points.

“I really hope we can go all the way through the pack. The pace was more promising in qualifying. The direction we went with the car was more promising.”