F1 News
Windsor sees less performance from Verstappen: 'Perez had more grip everywhere'
- GPblog.com
After the drama in Bahrain, where both Red Bull Racing drivers retired in the closing stages, the team is keen to come back strong in Saudi Arabia. They have already taken the first step towards doing so, with a Red Bull on pole position. Sergio Perez drove the lap of his life, putting him on P1 at the start of a Grand Prix for the first time.
Max Verstappen was disappointing in qualifying and could not get his tires optimally up to temperature in Q3. Afterwards he also let it be known that he was not satisfied with his own performance on the Jeddah Corniche Circuit. According to Peter Windsor, the Dutchman simply could not follow the speed of his experienced teammate.
Verstappen in pursuit
"He has been unbelievably quick, particularly in a straight line over the last two days. Max didn’t seem quite as good around the lap at any stage as Sergio," the F1 journalist acknowledged in his review of qualifying. According to Windsor, it is also due to the type of circuit, which prevented drivers like Verstappen from making the difference.
Perez managed to take full advantage of this and captured pole position with a lead of 0.025 over Leclerc and 0.261 over his Dutch teammate. According to Windsor, it did become clear that Perez felt more comfortable in Jeddah than Verstappen. "Throughout the sessions, it just seemed that Sergio had more grip everywhere than Max," he said.