Sergio Pérez thinks he would have won the Azerbaijan Grand Prix on Sunday if the safety car had not entered the circuit. The Mexican took the lead in Baku through the safety car and did not relinquish it.
“I think I would have just overtaken Max if that safety car had not come on track,” 32-year-old Pérez said firmly on Thursday in the paddock of Miami, where the fifth Grand Prix of the season is scheduled for next weekend. “Of course you never know for sure, but Max was having a hard time on his tyres. I was already very close before he made that pit stop.”
Verstappen was brought in shortly after Nyck de Vries crashed. The safety car came out a few seconds later, allowing Pérez to make a pit stop with less loss of time and thus take over the lead from Verstappen. Pérez kept Verstappen behind by some margin and won his second race of the year.
“I won in Baku on pure race speed,” emphasized Pérez, who is often strong on street circuits. “It’s true that I like street circuits, but otherwise I don’t care if I drive on a street circuit or on a classic circuit. If I can drive like that in Baku, I can do it anywhere.”
Pérez thought he was stronger than Verstappen in Baku. “When you’ve won the race on pure speed, you just do some things better than your teammate. Max and his engineers will see where I gained time on him and will undoubtedly learn lessons from that. I’ll do the same when he beats me. “
Pérez says he can handle tires better
The 33-year-old Pérez, who is convinced that he can compete for the title with Verstappen this year, has extensively analyzed with his engineers last winter in which areas he could improve. The main point for improvement: sparing his tires, something he excelled at in previous seasons.
The driver, who made the switch from Racing Point to Red Bull at the beginning of 2021, says he took a long time to get used to the Red Bull car in that area. “As I was always used to saving my tires, that was suddenly no longer possible at Red Bull.”
“I had to relearn a lot of things in the Red Bull car, including saving tires. That went better in the course of last season, but I was not yet able to fully control my tires. I can do that now. I I now feel much more like a Red Bull driver in that respect.”
The first free practice session for the Miami Grand Prix starts on Friday at 8 p.m. (Dutch time). Qualifying is scheduled for Saturday at 10 p.m. and the race is on Sunday at 9:30 p.m.
Source: NU by www.nu.nl.
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