Perez qualifying strategy backfire led to Q2 exit

Sergio Perez explained how his qualifying strategy led to an early exit in qualifying for the Las Vegas Grand Prix.

It was the third exit in Q2 in the last seven races for the Mexican, as he elected to pit to save after setting a 1:33.855 - but this was not enough to secure passage to Q3, with high track evolution proving it to be the wrong strategy, as several others improved out of the drop zone including both Williams drivers and Kevin Magnussen.

Perez qualified 12th fastest but will be promoted to 11th thanks to Carlos Sainz's 10-place grid drop from second - and one place behind Lewis Hamilton who was also eliminated in Q2.

"We have a strategy for qualifying. Obviously, we don't know this place and we were thinking what was the best program, and we went with this route," Perez explained to media, including RacingNews365.

"Already in Q1 we were lucky to get through because we didn't get our final lap.

"Then finishing the session a little bit too early, meant that there was some evolution still on the track.

"I wasn't aware that we were going to finish that early. We didn't seem to have the ultimate ten minutes today, so we were lacking a bit of pace.

When asked about the strategy for the race, Perez expects managing tyres will be key due to the cold ambient temperatures: "[Tyre] degradation could be potentially really high here.

"So there's plenty of things to look at and then we will see what we are able to come out with."