Sergio Perez has revealed that he suffered a mechanical issue during Free Practice 2 at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, leaving the team with work to do ahead of Saturday's running. It was another strong outing for Red Bull in the session, with Max Verstappen topping the timesheets while Perez set the third fastest lap of the hour. However, the Mexican admits that it wasn't all smooth sailing for the squad as he faced a problem with his RB19.
Perez: Hopefully we can sort issue
"We had a bit of an issue with the car mechanically, which hopefully we are able to sort out for tomorrow," Perez told Sky Sports F1 after FP2. "That will bring us a bit more pace, hopefully, [and] at least we can have a better idea on where the car is. "[There] was a bit of inconsistency and [it was] difficult to get a proper read today. Overall we seem to be strong, but the competition is there as expected." When pressed further on the nature of the mechanical issue, Perez responded: "I cannot go in much detail, but I think we are confident that we should be able to sort that out for tomorrow." Perez was also quizzed on whether Verstappen is his biggest rival for the weekend. "Hopefully, yes," the 33-year-old said. "That will mean that we are in a very strong position, but I do expect a few of the rival teams to step up tomorrow."
Verstappen reflects on FP2
On the other side of the garage, Verstappen was heard complaining about downshifts at one point during FP2, but downplayed this after the session. "It's just fine-tuning things with the downshifts. We do that all the time," the World Champion explained. Verstappen was left feeling positive about Friday's running, but warned that the team can "do better". "I think we had a positive day, but I think there's still quite a few things we can do better," he continued. "[On] the long run, I think it all seemed fairly close to each other. But it's more because of just managing the tyres, because they don't really let you push around here at the moment so, with a low-deg circuit, I think the lap times are all very close. "It's definitely not like Bahrain."
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