Sergio Perez Red Bull woes intensify after Hungary Q1 shunt

It goes from bad to worse for the under-pressure Sergio Perez, who found the wall during Q1 at the Hungarian Grand Prix.

With speculation swirling once more over Perez’s future at Red Bull, the Mexican desperately needed an improved showing at the Hungaroring to silence the noise, but that plan went up in smoke during the opening segment of qualifying.

Sergio Perez crashes out of Hungarian GP qualifying

Navigating a damp track, Perez lost control of his Red Bull RB20 heading into Turn 8, sliding off and slamming into the barriers. Perez fortunately was okay, but the same was not true for his Red Bull with heavy damage inflicted and his qualifying exit sealed.

All eyes switched to the timings screen to find out whether Perez could avoid a fourth Q1 elimination in his last six outings, but Haas’ Kevin Magnussen, the last driver over the line, popped up to P15 and dumped Perez into the bottom five, rubbing salt in the wound.

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Discussing the incident with media personnel at the Hungaroring, Perez said it “hurt” to suffer this further setback, but is hopeful that he has the pace to recover to a points-scoring position on Sunday.

“I think I clipped the kerb and at that point it was raining harder in Turn 8,” said Perez.

“So when I clipped the kerb it was quite late in the corner and it just sent me off completely into the wall.

“It hurts that it happened again, especially in the run that I’m going through. But I’m determined to turn this around, because I believe that…I mean yesterday, we had a really good, very promising day.

“So I think we have very good information on the long run, so hopefully tomorrow, we can have some really good pace to come through the field and hopefully score some points.”

The renewed pressure on Perez’s position at Red Bull has been coming from the team itself, who in the face of strengthening competition, fear the implications on their Constructors’ Championship push should Perez not return to form.

Speaking to Sky F1, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner revealed a heart-to-heart conversation which he had in his kitchen with Perez, as Red Bull try to bring their driver back to form.

“We have a really open relationship,” Horner said.

“I sat down with him in the kitchen at my house and said, ‘Come on, what’s going on? Is there something else?’ and he was like ‘No, I think I’m just overthinking things a bit too much’.

“I think almost ignoring what’s going on on the other side of the garage will do him a favour, which is the approach that he’s taking now, just focusing on his own performance.”

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