Sergio Perez sets sights on first pole position in 16 months after a spectacular start to the 2024 F1 Azerbaijan GP

Red Bull driver Sergio Perez said that he had a solid day after the Friday practice session at the 2024 Azerbaijan Grand Prix. The Mexican driver finished P3 and P2 in the FP1 and FP2 sessions respectively, and looked on the pace with other cars on the grid for a while.

It is a crucial weekend for the 34-year-old as one of the reasons for the Austrian teams' decision to retain him after the summer break was his capabilities on a street track, particularly in Baku and Singapore, where he has won previously. Perez is the most successful driver at the Baku City Circuit with two wins and four podium finishes since 2016.

Speaking with The Racer, Sergio Perez was optimistic about his chances for the all-important Saturday and felt that he could claim the pole position for the first time since the 2023 Miami GP. He said:

“It was definitely a good, solid day. I think there is some good pace. We did good progress from FP1 to FP2. I think we are heading in the right direction. We’re finding that we can put a little bit more together into the car," Perez said.

"It’s still a long way to go I think, but it’s promising what we’ve seen so far. We just have to make sure we are able to progress. I think we can definitely be in the mix for tomorrow," he added.

---

Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen give their take ahead of the qualifying in Baku

Red Bull driver Sergio Perez said that as a team they needed to keep working despite a positive start to the weekend in Baku. Talking about his chances in qualifying, the Mexican said (via the aforementioned source):

"Tomorrow, anything can happen really. We just have to keep our heads down and hopefully deliver a great couple of laps — well, we only need one really in Q3,” he said.

Sergio Perez's teammate and three-time world champion Max Verstappen was similarly optimistic after a relatively trouble-free Friday in a while and told F1.com:

“Overall, I think it has been a good day. We learned quite a bit and now it is just about tidying up the things that we tried, but I think so far we have been more competitive this weekend so that’s positive. There has been a lot of work in the background and it has been positive," Verstappen said.

Sergio Perez is currently P7 in the driver's standings with 143 points in 16 races and three Sprints thus far and has claimed four podiums this year in Bahrain, Jeddah, Japan, and China in the early part of the season. He is the only driver from the top four teams to not win a race in the 2024 season, failing to finish in the top four in a race since Miami.