Perez defends medium tyre call after Q2 exit in Bahrain F1 opener

Sergio Perez has taken responsibility for his Q2 exit in qualifying for the season-opening Formula 1 Bahrain Grand Prix.

After having his first lap in Q2 deleted for exceeding track limits at Turn 4, Red Bull sent Perez out again on another set of medium tyres, rather than softs, in a bid to make it into Q3.

The Mexican could only manage 11th come the close of the session, 0.3s down on Red Bull teammate Max Verstappen in Q2.

Reflecting on the call not to run on soft tyres in Q2, Perez felt he had enough pace in hand to progress on the harder rubber.

“No, I was really confident that I had the pace in hand,” Perez said. “Just putting the lap together would’ve put me through but I didn’t put it together. I think it was the right call from the time, to try go through on the medium but I just didn’t put the lap together.”

As Perez struggled, teammate Verstappen stormed to pole position in Bahrain ahead of the Mercedes duo of Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas.

The Mexican remains unperturbed by his Q2 exit and is confident he will be able to make gains in the coming races once he gets more comfortable with the Red Bull RB16B.

“It's been a difficult weekend overall, getting up to speed with the change of winds and even, it’s a one-lap tyre around here, you can’t really do more than one lap. It’s been a bit tricky to get up to speed, but I think we made good progress throughout qualifying.

“We had a little issue in the car in P3 that put us off a bit going into qualifying. But every kilometre that I’m doing with the car is helping me a lot. I’m happy with the progress I did with the car’s understanding going unto qualifying.

“It just needs to come more. I just have to be patient with myself, put the work on and it should just be a matter of time, I’m not concerned at all.”