Red Bull's Helmut Marko reacts to Sergio Perez's Q2 elimination

Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko has claimed that it was 'unfortunate' that Sergio Perez got eliminated from the Q2 session at the Imola Grand Prix by the slimmest of margins. The Mexican driver was just a few hundreds behind the RB of Daniel Ricciardo and finished P11 in the qualifying, and could not hook up a clean lap.

Heading into the qualifying session, the Red Bull driver was already on the backfoot having crashed in the dying moments of the FP3 session at the Variante Alta chicane that denied him a qualifying lap on the Imola track.

Speaking with Servus TV, Helmut Marko pointed out that Sergio Perez was surprised by the grip of his soft tires in his final Q2 run which caught him out. He said:

"That was a bit unfortunate. At first, he was driving on used soft tires, then on new soft tires and he was surprised by the grip he had. I think he lost three-tenths at Turn 7 and that was enough [to be out in Q2] with the tight field."

As per F1.com, Sergio Perez mentioned that he hadn't been comfortable in the RB20 since the beginning of the weekend. He said:

“It hasn’t been a very smooth weekend overall, and we’ve been playing quite a bit with the car and we just weren’t able to maximize in qualifying. In Q1 my lap wasn’t good enough and we went out on a new set, which means we started Q2 on a scrubbed set.

"On my final lap in Q2, I lacked rear grip in Turn 7 and locked up which cost me two and half tenths which would have easily put me into Q3, so I think we had the pace to be a lot higher up. We’ve made some good progress with the car as Max showed, but unfortunately from my side, I didn’t get the chance to show that in Q3."

Sergio Perez optimistic about his chances of a comeback on Sunday

Sergio Perez is optimistic that he could be strong in the race on Sunday as he has a faster car than the drivers ahead of him that will enable him to move up the grid in the first few laps.

He told the media:

"We will see what we will be able to do come race day as Imola is one of the hardest tracks to overtake on, but I hope that we can be strong tomorrow and the main target will be to minimize the issues we had today and to have a good, solid race."

Sergio Perez would hope that he finishes somewhere around the top 5 to limit the damage to his points tally as he might lose the P2 in the Driver's Championship to Ferrari of Charles Leclerc, who is just five points behind him on 98 points and starts the race in P3.