Sergio Perez has revealed a major problem with the braking of his Red Bull sparked an embarrassing Q1 exit at his home Mexico City Grand Prix.
Perez's season went from bad to worse after being dumped in the opening segment of qualifying at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, leaving him to start a wretched 18th. It is the first time he has not started inside the top five at his home race since he joined Red Bull in 2021.
The six-time grand prix winner has detailed how a problem with the brakes of his RB20 led to him bleeding lap-time - with team-mate Max Verstappen second on the grid.
"I am struggling quite a bit with the braking," he told media including RacingNews365. "Every time I try to brake and attack the braking, I just put too much energy into the tyres and that makes it very tricky for me to stop the car.
"It has been the last three races that I cannot stop the car, and I am having to modulate my braking quite a lot.
"We can see it in the data, but we are unable to fix it.
"The issue we are facing is mainly in a straight line. I cannot stop the car in the braking zones. I just slide too much and given it is all surface sensitivity here, it makes it a lot harder."
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Perez's race
Perez has scored just 47 points in the 12 races since the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix in May, and has not finished higher than sixth since a third in China in April.
Looking ahead to his race, he hinted the problems he is encountering will hamper him in the 71-lap race.
"The race will be hard as it is also present in the long run, so I will try everything with the team and see what solutions we are able to find," he said.
"It is obviously very disappointing because this a track I want to do well, but unfortunately, it's been difficult and tricky.
"We are very tight on parts that we have available. We don't have the spec of floor that we would like to go to, but we will discuss."
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