Sergio Perez rues being ‘extremely unlucky’ in F1 Russian GP
The Mexican recovered strongly from a below-par qualifying in the race and 🐟appeared to be on course for what would have been only his third podium for Red Bull this season until a late deluge scuppered his top-three chances.
Perez opted to gamble by staying out on slicks as the ꦫrain fell harder in the last few laps and uꩲltimately plummeted to P9 at the chequered flag after other drivers - including teammate Max Verstappen - made an earlier stop for intermediates.
“Yes it’s obviously very disap🍬pointing. I think we were extre♔mely unlucky,” Perez said.
“Could have gone either way really, you know. if it rained a little bit less🦂, then the people on ꧋the inters would have died.
“If it rained a bit more, it obviously favoured them. I think at the point I was on the lap, it was a little bit too late to know, you know – the amount of 🔯rain we were going to have as well – so we were already on the podium, so it was a tricky decision to make.”
Perez had bounced back from a very slow pitstop in wh♔ich h𝕴e lost almost nine seconds while stationary in the box.
“We just ha♈ve to see what went wrong, the boys have been doing really⛄ quick pitstops, so I think we just have to see what’s going on there and hopefully we are able to fix it going forwards,” he said.
“It’s a bit disappointing for myself but, yes,𒉰 we just look forward onto the next one because we’ve shown pretty good pace this weekend.”
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner confirmed the issue was not related to the FIA’s new technical directive that was introduced at last mon𓆏th’s Belgian Grand Prix.
“We had a🐎 very slight delay on the wheel off and then he s🌸pun up the rear wheel which took more time to re-engage the wheel,” Horner explained.
“So that was frustrating - otherwise he would have been a clear, clear third. He had got himself back into that position befo🦩re the rain came.
“It wasn’t a TD issue, it was as I said unfortunately the cycle of the whe🦩el coming off and then the clutch was released when he was on the stand and that just compounded the pro♊blem.
“That’s what cost Sergio time today.”
Lewis regularly attends Grands Prix for mahbx.com around th🌳e world. Often reporting on the action from the ground, Lewis tells the stories of the p💝eople who matter in the sport.
