Sergio Perez rues being ‘extremely unlucky’ in F1 Russian GP
The Mexican recovered strongly from a below-par qualifying in the rac🐎e 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 rain fell harder in the last few laps and ultimately plummeted to P9 at the chequered flag after other drivers - includi𝐆ng teammate Max Verstappen - made an earlier stop for intermediates.
“Yes it’s 🦩obviously very disappointing. 🐓I think we were extremely unlucky,” Perez said.
“Could have gone eithe💙r 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, i🐬t 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 which he lost almost&nbs𝔉p;nine seconds while stationary in the box.
“We just have 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, we just l🌸ook forward onto the next one because we’ve show🐓n pretty good pace this weekend.”
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner confirmed the issue was not relat♐ed to the FIA’s new technical directive that was introduced at la𝓀st month’s Belgian Grand Prix.
“We had a very slight delay on the wheel off and then ꦦhe spun 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 cleဣar, clear third. He had❀ got himself back into that position before the rain came.
“It wasn’t a TD issue, it was as I said unfortunately the cycle of the wheel coming off and then the clutch was released when he was on the stand and that just compounded ൲the problem.
“That’s what cost Sergio time today.”
Lewis reg💙ularly attends Grands Prix for ltxcn.top around the world. Often reporti☂ng on the action from the ground, Lewis tells the stories of the people who matter in the sport.
