Sergio Perez was left disappointed after qualifying in fourth for the Miami Grand Prix, having believed that pole position may have been possible. The Mexican displayed strong pace for most of the session, but struggled to match the Ferraris in the final part of the hour. Charles Leclerc clinched P1, with Carlos Sainz joining him on the front row, and Perez's Red Bull teammate, Max Verstappen, taking third. Perez says that he had an issue warming his tyres up on his first flying lap in Q3, and feels that this problem threw him off. "My Q3 run one was a disaster," Perez told media, including RacingNews365.com . "I just had the tyres too cold, and that put me off going into my final lap." Perez thinks that he couldn't "build into" the low-speed section of the track, and that this cost him the time he needed to get onto the front row. "[A] couple of hundredths would have put me P2, which was possible," he added. "But certainly, I think Charles did a very strong lap."
Perez anticipating "interesting battle" with Ferrari
When asked whether he felt that pole position was possible following a strong Free Practice 3, Perez admitted: "Yeah, definitely. "We took certain directions that we had to [take], that probably were not ideal." Perez believes that he and the team got a "couple of things wrong" and "paid the price", but also placed blame on himself. "When you're talking about [a] couple of hundredths, I didn't do the job that I should have done today," he said. In terms of where Ferrari were able to get the edge on Red Bull in qualifying, Perez pointed to the Italian outfit's abilities in the low-speed sections. However, he still believes that a close fight can play out between the two teams in Sunday's inaugural Miami Grand Prix. "[Ferrari are] able to ride the kerbs a lot better than we do," Perez commented. "They make good lap time [compared to] us in those low-speed [sections]. But tomorrow is a different story. It's going be an interesting battle between us."
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