Perez hails amazing turnaround after “very messy weekend”

The Mexican made Q3 for the sixth straight race in a row and will line up seventh on the grid tomorrow, having beaten teammate Esteban Ocon by 0.069s.

The result capped off an impressive Red Bull Ring turnaround for Perez, who after sitting out FP1 in favour of reserve driver Alfonso Celis Jr. struggled in FP2 and FP3, finishing the two sessions in 17th and 18th respectively.

“It’s a relief that you manage to come back and do such a strong qualifying,” Perez told Motorsport.com.

“It’s probably one of my best qualifying [sessions] in my whole career just because of the way we turned it around with the team.

“It’s been a massive struggle and I’m very, very pleased with qualifying.”

Perez, who attributed his recovery to a change in balance and “floor issues” being solved, admitted he had not been expecting to make it to the final segment after his practice woes.

Explaining his “very messy weekend”, he said: “It wasn’t ideal, the preparation up to qualifying.

“It was set-up, and also some more issues that we had like the floor issue, like me losing P1.

“It’s a very difficult circuit to be losing P1 [at] but we worked well and I am very happy. I think we’re going to be in a good position tomorrow because my race pace should be really strong.

“I think it’s been one of my best recoveries in my career. I was yesterday P18, this morning P17. I would never be expecting us to be fighting for Q3.”