Sergio Perez, the Mexican Formula 1 driver, placed himself on the second place of the grid for the Bahrain Grand Prix, only behind his Red Bull teammate, Max Verstappen, who took the pole position with a time of 1:29.708, the 21st of his career.
On the other hand, Sergio Perez finished with a time of 1:29.846, which is why the Mexican driver assured that they had never had such a tight time before and that his time could have been better, but the balance of the car did not keep him calm during the tests.
“It was very tight, and I don’t remember such a tight qualifying. I wasn’t entirely comfortable with the balance of the car. Of course, there is always room for improvement. We have prepared more for the race. The car we have is more for Sunday,” were the words of the most successful Mexican driver of recent times.
Below both of them was Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, to close the second starting line. In fourth place was Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz Jr again, while Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll of Aston Martin were 5th and 8th; George Russell and Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes were 6th and 7th. Finally, Nico Hülkenberg of Haas was 9th, and Esteban Ocon of Alpine was 10th.
To complement, beyond position 10, Lando Norris with MCL60 got position 11, followed by Alfa Romero drivers Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu. In contrast, position 14 will see AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda, followed in 15 and 16 by Alex Albon and rookie of the season, Williams Racing’s Logan Sargeant.
Provisional grid:
- Max Verstappen (NED/Red Bull)
- Sergio Pérez (MEX/Red Bull)
- Charles Leclerc (MON/Ferrari)
- Carlos Sainz Jr (ESP/Ferrari)
- Fernando Alonso (ESP/Aston Martin-Mercedes)
- George Russell (GBR/Mercedes)
- Lewis Hamilton (GBR/Mercedes)
- Lance Stroll (CAN/Aston Martin-Mercedes)
- Esteban Ocon (FRA/Alpine-Renault)
- Nico Hülkenberg (GER/Haas-Ferrari)
- Lando Norris (GBR/McLaren-Mercedes)
- Valtteri Bottas (FIN/Alfa Romeo)
- Zhou Guanyu (CHN/Alfa Romeo)
- Yuki Tsunoda (JPN/AlphaTauri-Red Bull)
- Alexander Albon (THA/Williams-Mercedes)
- Logan Sargeant (USA/Williams-Mercedes)
- Kevin Magnussen (DEN/Haas-Ferrari)
- Oscar Piastri (AUS/McLaren-Mercedes)
- Nyck de Vries (NED/AlphaTauri-Red Bull)
- Pierre Gasly (FRA/Alpine-Renault)
During the first Practice, Sergio “Checo” Perez took first place with a time of 1:32.758 in a total of 21 laps; below him, Fernando Alonso, who would later dominate the second practice with 1:30.907 on the stopwatch, and also the third round of testing with a time of 1:32.340.
Sergio Perez was enthusiastic about the first race of the season.
“A very positive start. The team is working hard to get the best out of qualifying, which promises to be very close. Let’s go all out!” were the words Sergio Perez wrote hours before the free practice started.
During the previous days, he could be read excited through his social networks, where he assured that he was able to complete the whole preseason program without major problems, so he said he was ready to face the first race, where he would have to sustain the excellent work they did last year, where Red Bull Racing swept every track.