Sergio Pérez was eliminated in the first segment of Qualifying on Saturday at the Hungaroring, with the Mexican feeling he took too much life out of his tyres early in the session that left him unable to improve at the end when conditions were at their best.
The Sahara Force India F1 Team racer, who has been in the news this week for his part in the team going into administration, will start down in nineteenth on Sunday after struggling with his tyres, finishing just behind team-mate Esteban Ocon, who was also left on the wrong side of the cut off point.
Pérez says things like this happens when conditions are as mixed as they were at the Hungaroring, and there was definitely more speed in the car than his grid position would indicate.
“A disappointing session,” said Pérez. “We were expecting more rain towards the end of Q1 so we went out early to set our times and took the best out of the tyres.
“This really hurt us because the track was improving massively towards the end of Q1 and we didn’t complete our best lap when the track was at its best. Sometimes this happens when the weather is changing quickly, but we definitely had much more potential today.”
Pérez says it will be difficult to make much of an impact on race day should it be a normal kind of race but he insists he will never give up and will attempt to take any opportunity that presents itself to move forward.
“For tomorrow I think it’s a big challenge to recover if we have a normal race, but you never know what can happen and we never give up,” said Pérez.
