Sergio Perez felt he headed into Italian Grand Prix qualifying 'blind' following an oil leak on his RB19 during final practice. The issue meant the Red Bull driver did not get to complete a new Soft tyre run before qualifying at Monza as the power unit was changed ahead of qualifying. The Mexican would secure fifth on the grid, 0.381s slower than teammate Max Verstappen who was narrowly pipped to pole position by Ferrari's Carlos Sainz. "Considering the situation, missing FP3 and going blind [into qualifying, it was a decent session]," Perez told media including RacingNews365. "I didn't run new [Soft] tyres before qualifying and it wasn't an ideal day, but it is what it is. "Given the margins, our preparation wasn't ideal, but we had a lot of pace [on Friday], it was looking great but unfortunately we didn't get to show what we were able to do. "These sort of things can happen, and they just disrupt the situation for us and having issues with the setup of the car. "Unfortunately, we also had issues with the engine so we had to change it, so it was a little bit too much [to overcome]."
Perez was 'blind'
The Monza weekend is the second trial of the Alternative Tyre Allocation from Pirelli, with teams required to use Hards in Q1, Mediums in Q2 and Softs in Q3, while also only receiving 11 sets of tyres per driver as opposed to the normal 13. Perez conceded: "It is quite tricky, especially if you have an issue like I did and you go completely blind [into qualifying]," he said. "If the first time you run the Soft tyre is in Q3, you are always a step behind."
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