Horner 'hugely frustrated' by Perez track limit neglect
For the fourth consecutive race weekend, Sergio Perez failed to make the Q3 cut in qualifying, the Red Bull charger caught out by successive track limit violations at the Red Bull Ring despite repeated warnings from his team.
Remarkably, all three of Perez's flying laps were deleted from the time sheet for small but clear track limit transgressions.
Speaking after the session, the Mexican felt inclined to blame on Alex Albon for his plight, claiming the Williams driver had impeded him into the final corner on his third and final flyer.
"On the way we were a bit confused, but then once I got the feedback that it was on the way into turn 10, it was all clear," Perez said.
"I was on a good lap, but then all of the sudden on my final lap, I found Albon and I just went straight. I could not stop. I think I lost a tenth or a bit more than that just by going straight, but the stewards wouldn’t consider that I was blocked."
Indeed, with Albon running well clear of the Red Bull, the stewards saw no reason to investigate the action, let alone sanction the Williams charger, and give Perez a free pass. .
"There’s so many things I can control and unfortunately, this one, you’re closing a good lap and then all of the sudden you are blocked, and you have a penalty," Perez added. "I think the system is wrong."
Speaking to Sky F1 about his driver's tribulations in Q2, a visibly irritated Horner found no mitigating circumstances to absolve Perez, especially as he had been warned repeatedly by his team to put in a banker a "stay in the white lines".
"He’s got the pace today, he's got a car that was easily capable of being on the first or second row, he was matching Max’s times, stay in the white lines!" pounded Horner.
"It was strike one, strike two, ‘Checo, just stay in the white lines’, strike three, and that was it.
"It’s just hugely frustrating because he could’ve been there, he could’ve done it. So that’s the frustration, it’s fantastic that we got the pole, but it feels… not complete."
Addressing Perez's complaints on Albon, Horner dismissed the Mexican driver's excuses.
"It’s not going to have helped, but then you build in a little bit more margin, so…" he said.
"Frustrated. We’ll turn the page. He’ll race hard tomorrow, but it’s just annoying because we know he could’ve been there."
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