Sergio Perez believes the opening day of practice for the Italian Grand Prix didn’t go as well as he thought it would.
The Sahara Force India driver finished Free Practice 1 in fifth, ahead of the Haas F1 of Romain Grosjean, finishing with a time of 1:24.650, which was 0.717 seconds ahead of reserve driver Alfonso Celis Jr who had taken over the second car from Nico Hulkenberg. Perez was unable to carry this strong performance into Free Practice 2 as he finished in thirteenth, behind Hulkenberg by nearly one tenth of a second.
“I don’t think today went as well as we thought it would,” said Perez. “The balance of the car is still not where I want it to be so we need to understand why that is the case.
“There are still a couple of tenths we can find and that should be a good starting point. The times show the battle in the midfield is even closer than usual, so we need to keep pushing to come out on top.”
During Free Practice 1, Perez had the opportunity to test the Halo for the first time. Just last weekend for the Belgian Grand Prix, Hulkenberg had tested the concept. Perez feels the Halo didn’t give him any problems with visibility, he is interested to see how the Halo develops over time.
“In the morning session I had a chance to try the Halo for the first time,” said Perez. “It was just an installation lap, but I didn’t feel it gave me any problems with visibility.
“Getting out of the car is a bit more of a struggle, but it will be interesting to see how this technology develops over time.”
