Sergio Perez will start Sunday’s Australian Grand Prix from last on the grid after he slithered into a gravel trap at the beginning of qualifying and became stuck.
It brought an early end to what must rank as one of his most desperate days at the wheel of a Formula 1 car. Perez was plagued by braking problems throughout final practice, and though he was convinced they had been solved ahead of qualifying, he was dismayed to discover that was not the case when he tried to slow his car at turn three on his first full lap of the session.
After his car came to a rest Perez was unable to engage reverse. “Going along that mud might be your best bet now, going along the edge there,” race engineer Hugh Bird suggested, but the RB19 was stuck and Perez’s session was over.
“Same fucking issue, man,” fumed Perez. “We’ve got the same fucking issue.”
After two disrupted practice sessions at the circuit yesterday, Perez knew he faced a long job list on Saturday. “Tomorrow there’s more or less plenty to do,” he said, “too much to do in FP3.”
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner indicated they took the decision to focus on Perez’s single-lap pace in the final hour before qualifying. He didn’t appear on track for the first 20 minutes.
“There was a bit of a delay in getting the car weighed and so it wasn’t the best build up prior to P3 that we would have hoped for,” Horner explained. “But he wasn’t planning to do a long run in P3, so it wasn’t a desperate rush to get going.”
Once he did, Perez soon encountered trouble with his brakes at some of the slower corners around the Albert Park circuit. He abandoned one lap after a snap of oversteer at turn one and asked Bird whether there was something wrong with his car:
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| Bird | Display 11 position one minus two. Display 11 position one minus two. Bottas coming through now. That’ll be a less aggressive push toggle. Your battery is good. So good to go for this next lap. Think about minus one on the bias offset as well. Minus one if you need it. No threats behind. Okay, recharge off. |
| Perez | I just don’t feel the… it’s all okay with the car? |
| Perez | I cannot brake into turn one. Very loose rear. And then a lot of front lock going into turn three. Very inconsistent balance corner to corner |
| Bird | Okay. Nothing jumping out at the moment in the data. We’ll keep on looking. Do you want to have another look, go for another push lap? |
| Perez | Yeah. Is the… |
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