Sergio Perez’s tough season continued as he was eliminated in Q2 during the Singapore Grand Prix qualifying, blaming set-up changes that sent his Red Bull car in the “wrong direction.” After showing promise in Azerbaijan, where he was on track for a podium until a late clash with Carlos Sainz, Perez was hoping to build on that momentum. Instead, he found himself struggling to extract grip and was left bewildered as he slumped to 13th place on the grid.
Perez was forced into a late improvement in Q1 just to scrape through to the second stage, but his fortunes worsened in Q2. Despite teammate Max Verstappen securing second on the grid, Perez found himself unable to match the pace, attributing his struggles to a combination of overheating brakes and an inability to get his tires up to temperature.
“I don’t know, Q1 was looking really nice and smooth,” Perez said. “But in Q2, I felt I was sliding a lot more and couldn’t get the tire up to temperature. It was just a very tricky afternoon.” Perez’s difficulties with the Soft tire in Q2 were compounded by brake issues, with the Mexican driver noting that his brakes were running too hot and lacked the bite needed to challenge for a top-ten spot.
The primary culprit behind his struggles, however, appeared to be overnight set-up changes that adversely affected the balance of his RB20. “We changed quite a bit on the car, and I think we went in the wrong direction,” Perez admitted. “We were in a nicer window yesterday and just lost a lot of competitiveness.”
With overtaking notoriously difficult on the tight streets of Marina Bay, Perez acknowledges that he’ll need to rely heavily on his team’s strategy to salvage a result in the race. “It’s going to be tough, but we’ll do everything we can from the pit wall to climb back into the points,” he concluded.
Perez’s Q2 exit is another blow in what has been a frustrating season of ups and downs, and the pressure will be on him and his team to make the right calls as he fights to recover from his lowly grid position.
