Sergio Perez, Lewis Hamilton term F1 Brazil GP weekend as disaster in the end, where the two had separate reasons for their bad run.
After a goodish run in the sprint race in F1 Brazil GP for Red Bull’s Perez, he had a bad start in the main race when he spun early on after touching a pool of water. He put down the early trouble to cold tyres where they didn’t have enough time to change the tyres.
That spin hurt his chances, but he managed to climb back up on the back of the Top 10. But then he was stuck in the train of Oscar Piastri, Liam Lawson, Oliver Bearman, Carlos Sainz and Hamilton. In the end, it was just the three of them in close proximity, with the Mexican chasing the Kiwi for ninth, while defending from the Brit.
But in his attempt, Perez lost out to Hamilton and despite attempts to get back on the Brit, he couldn’t and had to settle for 11th. While his teammate Max Verstappen took the win, the Mexican lost points crucially for Red Bull in the constructors’ fight when rivals scored less.
“Yeah, it was a disaster,” said Perez to media. “We didn’t know at the time that we could change the tyres until very last minute, and there was no time to change them. And we started the race with very cool tyres. And then, as there was no one ahead of me, I started and went into a hole of water. So it was a total disaster the start.
“We were making progress, and then, unfortunately we pitted at the red flag. And then at the restart, the visibility was zero but we were making some progress. We came all the way to Liam, and then we ended up touching a bit into Turn 1, and then I went straight at Turn 4, losing the position to Lewis. It was a total disaster. Nothing worked.
“We keep finding each other [Lawson]. I was already locked-up, it was a much fairer fight. We touched wheels which is fine. Nothing to say. But overall, there are some positives from the weekend, the victory of Max is very important for the team, momentum wise, I think it has been a very strong weekend in terms of pace.
“There are positives but obviously my result is very disappointing,” summed up Perez, as Christian Horner lamented the points loss in the main race after a good show in sprint. “It was a difficult race for Checo, spinning at the beginning of the race drops him down,” he said. “It was an opportunity in the Constructors to take a big chunk out of both Ferrari and McLaren.
“Unfortunately, we’ve not been able to capitalise on that, so obviously that’s frustrating. But we’ll go away and have a look at it and come back hopefully fighting hard in Vegas. Overall, I think he drove a good race in sprint, but the main race wasn’t his day.”
On the other hand, Mercedes’ Hamilton too did not enjoy the day as he struggled all-weekend long. The bouncing issue hurt him, as he had no pace whatsoever to challenge anyone in the top half. He is waiting for the season to end soon, so that he can get away from driving one of the worst cars that he has driven.
“The race was crap,” said Hamilton. “Let’s not talk about the car, because the car is no good. I think both [car and resurface for bouncing]. Mostly the car, something is not right. [Saturday] was terrible, [Sunday] was terrible, qualifying and the sprint race was bad, the car has just been bad all weekend. The end can’t come soon enough.
“It doesn’t feel good. Obviously, it’s devastating to have these bad races in the second half of the season, but all I can say is we’re trying coming into the weekends. But it’s definitely not acceptable. It’s definitely not good enough. We have to take accountability. I have to take accountability, but I’m doing the best with what I’ve got.
“For some reason, the car has been the worst this weekend, and I don’t know what it is. We’re going to have to find out what it is, but, still, the mechanics did a great job getting early in the morning, practice starts at 4 AM, all the work done on the car all weekend, one of the cars was working a lot better. There is obviously potential. You tell me [what’s wrong]. That’s the million-dollar question. If you can find it, I’ll give you a million dollars,” summed up Hamilton.
Here’s Lewis Hamilton taking advantage: https://www.formula1.com/en/video/2024-sao-paulo-grand-prix-hamilton-takes-advantage-as-perez-fails-to-pass-lawson.1814730545864537787
Here’s Max Verstappen on his emotions
Here’s how F1 Brazil GP panned out
Here’s how F1 Brazil GP sprint panned out
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