Sergio Perez was irked by the traffic issues which prevented him from setting competitive lap times in the final Formula 1 practice session. The Red Bull driver was one of few drivers to attempt flying laps on the Soft tyres prior to the mid-session rain shower in FP2. However, the Mexican encountered traffic on his flying lap attempts, mostly through the fast Turns 11 and 12 in sector two, causing him to back off. The first free practice session in Melbourne was red-flagged due to a GPS issue, which prevented teams from accurately relaying traffic information to their drivers, and Perez commented that it felt like the same issue still existed in FP2.
"It was a bit mental, especially going into FP2," Perez told media after FP2. "It felt like a lot of people still had issues with GPS data, so it was just a mess. I couldn't get a lap in the afternoon." Perez was cautiously optimistic about Red Bull's pace in free practice, but felt that he would be going into the rest of the weekend 'a bit blind' due to the disrupted practice sessions. "We made some good changes from FP1 that I could feel in sector 1 and sector 2 but I couldn’t get a full lap in the afternoon with the traffic in sector 3," added Perez. "I was a bit surprised in the damp conditions that I couldn't get a good sense of the track, but in the dry it was great and the car felt good. "There's much to do in FP3, so I think we're going to be a bit blind going into the race, which should be interesting."
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