Perez disappointed with qualifying effort despite finally beating Verstappen · RaceFans

Sergio Perez believes a front row start was within his grasp after qualifying fourth on the grid for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

The Red Bull driver out-qualified team mate Max Verstappen for the first time in 33 rounds in Baku. Perez came out ahead by two tenths of a second and will start two places ahead of the championship leader.

However, despite finally out-qualifying Verstappen for the first time since the 2023 Miami Grand Prix, Perez says he was not satisfied with his grid position.

“First of all, I’m a bit disappointed,” he told the official F1 channel. “Because I felt like P2, on a perfect lap, should have been possible.

“I had a scrappy sector two, where I probably missed a tenth-and-a-half. It’s probably the same for everyone though.”

He admitted it would have been difficult to match the pole-setting time of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. “Ferrari were in another league,” said Perez.

“But I think further up would have been good. We’ll see tomorrow. We are very different to everyone else, so we’ll see what we are able to do come tomorrow and see what we are able to achieve.”

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Red Bull have introduced an aggressive new floor design for this weekend in a bid to regain some of the ground lost to their rivals since the summer break. Verstappen admitted that he had made several set-up changes before qualifying that did not work out for him, but Perez is confident that his car’s set-up should allow him to challenge his rivals ahead in the early phases of Sunday’s race.

“We’ll see tomorrow. I think definitely on the first stint, I should be strong,” he said. “It will be down to the amount of progress that I’m able to make.

“From then on, just head down and hopefully we are able to be as strong in the race, that will be very important.”