Sergio Pérez had mixed feelings after Qualifying for the British Grand Prix on Saturday, with the Mexican set to start the race from twelfth on the grid.
The Sahara Force India F1 Team racer was expecting the track evolution to bring more pace in his final run in the second phase of Qualifying at Silverstone, but the expected jump in pace was not as much as he needed to advance into the top ten, missing out on Q3 by less than a tenth of second.
“There was the potential to be a bit quicker, but the track didn’t improve as much as I was expecting,” said Pérez, who will start alongside Nico Hülkenberg on row six. “The margins were very close and unfortunately I missed out on a place in Q3.”
Pérez says starting twelfth might not be the worst position to start from on Sunday, as he will have a new set of Soft and a new set of Medium Pirelli tyres to use at some point, although he admits the high temperatures expected could make one-stop strategies difficult to achieve.
“P12 is not the worst place to be starting tomorrow: we can race well from there and points are achievable,” said the Mexican. “I have a free choice of tyres for the start and we have new tyres available.
“The hot track temperatures have the potential to make things interesting tomorrow. With high degradation it could make a one-stop race difficult to achieve.”
