Sergio Pérez admitted it was disappointing to find himself eliminated from Qualifying for the Austrian Grand Prix at the first hurdle on Saturday, especially as he felt his Sahara Force India F1 Team had made progress with its VJM11 this weekend.
Five different teams found themselves eliminated in Q1, and unfortunately for Pérez, he found himself on the wrong side of the cut off time by just 0.015 seconds, with Lance Stroll edging himself into the top fifteen for Williams Martini Racing at the expense of the Mexican, while Stoffel Vandoorne split the duo for the McLaren F1 Team.
Pérez will move up a spot on the grid thanks to Charles Leclerc taking a five-place penalty for a gearbox change, and from sixteenth on the grid, he is still eyeing a top ten finish on Sunday afternoon at the Red Bull Ring.
“I am disappointed to go out of qualifying so early today,” said Pérez. “It was definitely not the result we were expecting. We were close to making Q2 but in the end we fell just short.
“I found so much traffic in the last sector of my final and the time I lost kept me out of Q2. We didn’t maximise our performance and paid the price for it. With these small margins, we had to be perfect to progress and that wasn’t the case today.
“I feel we made some good steps forward with the car this weekend, even though we weren’t able to show it today, and we will give everything to try and recover some points tomorrow.”
