Perez: 'Shame we were held up by George'

Sergio Perez could not compete for pole position for the Italian Grand Prix on Saturday afternoon. Nor could the Red Bull Racing driver finish ahead of teammate Max Verstappen. While Verstappen drove himself to second place, Perez had to settle for fifth on Sunday's grid.

According to the Mexican, it was difficult to warm up the tyres properly as the drivers were allowed a maximum of 1.41 minutes over a lap. "Especially with that delta that we had to maintain on the outlaps, it was not easy to start with the tyres [at the right temperature]. But overall, it was a good battle out there. The margins were super close. A bit of a shame that we got picked up by George there in the end. But hopefully tomorrow we can be in a much better position," Perez told Viaplay.

In VT3, Perez suffered from an oil leak, losing valuable track time. Therefore, he had switched power units ahead of qualifying. "Yes, I think it was not ideal to go to another spec in that regard. But it's how it is. And tomorrow we will try to do our very best."

Red Bull changed Perez's power unit, but did so with an engine the Mexican had in his pole. So he did not take a new power unit.