Sergio Perez says he was forced to burn through his set of new soft tyres in the first two segments of qualifying in Austria which left him with only used rubber to tackle Q3.
The Red Bull driver, who was able to gain access to the top-ten shootout for the first time since last month’s Miami Grand Prix, concluded his session P7, 0.888s adrift from his pace setting teammate Max Verstappen.
But the Mexican struggled to make the Q3 cut, so much so that he had to rely on fresh soft rubber to ensure his spot in the first half of the field, which left him with only a used set of Pirelli’s red-rimmed compound.
“Unfortunately, we didn't have the new tyre in Q3,” Perez explained.
“We didn’t have the margins early on in Q1 and Q2, and we ended up using more new sets of tyres than we wanted and went into Q3 with only scrubbed sets left.
“The margin, I think it was four-tenths to Lando and I think a big chunk of that is the new tyre, unfortunately.
“With the strategy we had just for four sets of new Softs so we paid a little bit the price. Q1 was extremely tight, tighter than we predicted.”
Perez’s best result in the past four races is a fourth-place finish in Miami, which by any measure is a mediocre track record for a driver armed with the fastest car on the grid.
However, the six-time Grand Prix winner is confident that his RB20’s race set-up and some skilled tyre management can carry him forward.
“It's frustrating to burn through the rubber so quickly,” Perez stated. “Unfortunately, it was not enough for us.
“We didn't manage to get the maximum but all the changes that we've done, I believe are going to help for tomorrow’s race.
“I think it is going to be really close on track tomorrow and should be an interesting battle where anything can happen.
“We’ll see where we really are tomorrow when degradation kicks in.”
Once again, Red Bull team boss Christian Horner stressed the importance of Perez joining the fight up ahead to help his team’s championship battle.
“We are going to need Checo to have a strong race tomorrow as the McLarens, Ferraris, and Mercedes cars are right there with us. All to play for tomorrow,” said Horner.
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