Sergio Perez admitted Bahrain is going to be a challenge for Racing Point F1 Team this weekend after a tough opening day.
Mexican driver Perez finished fourteenth in both Free Practice 1 and 2 but the Racing Point team looked to struggle in the scorching hot heat of Sakhir.
In Free Practice 1, Perez set a time of 1:32:885 but with the session taking place in the day, he insisted it’s hard to read too much into the time as the race takes place later in the evening.
“It’s been a challenging day to start our Bahrain weekend. The sessions earlier in the day, Free Practice 1 and Free Practice 3, are not that relevant because the temperatures are so much higher than what we expect for qualifying and the race, so the opportunities to work on the set-up are limited.”
Despite Perez not reading too much into his Free Practice 1 time, he managed to shave two seconds off in Free Practice 2 and set a time of 1:30:716.
Free Practice 2 was delayed for Perez as his RP19 endured a lengthy stay in the garage as the Racing Point crew worked on an issue on the front-right of his car.
When Perez did emerge, he set an improved time but still found himself fourteenth; he says it’ll be difficult for the team to get through to Q3 on Saturday.
“We tried lots of things on the car today, which will help our learning in the long term, and we collected all the usual tyre information ahead of the race.
“We need to work hard to find a few tenths overnight and improve the balance of the car, otherwise it’ll be very difficult to reach Q3.”
