Another mediocre weekend
Sergio Pérez has had another race weekend to forget. Despite a brief revival in the early stages thanks to an early pit stop to intermediates, it turned out to be another disappointment. Dr. Helmut Marko makes no bones about it again.
It was another Max Verstappen party at Zandvoort on Sunday and all the joy at Red Bull Racing was also for that side of the pit box. A door further, with teammate Sergio Pérez, it will have been especially disappointing. The Mexican already disappointed in qualifying by conceding more than 1.3 seconds to Verstappen in Q3 and then things did not go well in the race. That while at the beginning with the former switch to intermediate tires it seemed to be something and Pérez even took the lead for a while. In the end, Verstappen clocked much faster lap times on the same tires and drove away from his teammate in just about six laps. To make matters worse, Pérez spun off the track at Tarzan corner later in the race and then crashed at the entrance to the pit lane. That also earned him a time penalty of five seconds, as he also entered the pit lane at too high a speed.
A weekend to forget, so it seems, Red Bull CEO Dr. Helmut Marko. Marko wants to say something about it first via play. The Austrian once again makes no bones about it: “He was lucky with that pit stop, because he crashed pretty hard when entering the pit lane. On top of that, he also had that penalty because he braked too late. He still succeeded because without the red flag he wouldn’t have made it to the finish.” While the red flag was out, Red Bull was able to repair Pérez’s car and therefore he was still able to finish the race. In the end he was classified fourth. Despite everything, Marko says that the team is still behind him, albeit with a clear assignment. “We trust him, he has to be second this year. He is building up pressure for himself, but to be honest everyone is having a hard time besides Max.”
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl