Sergio Perez says fresh hope has been breathed into Red Bull's title hopes, with the team now confident that their early-season reliability problems are behind them. Perez and teammate Max Verstappen shared three retirements during the opening three races, dropping plenty of points in the process. Their issues have allowed Charles Leclerc and Ferrari to build a healthy lead at the top of the standings heading into a home race in Italy. But, after Verstappen stormed to victory in Saturday's Sprint at Imola, Red Bull approach Sunday's 63-lap race filled with confidence that their reliability woes are now a thing of the past. "What gives us hope is that all the issues or the reliability problems we've had, we understood them and we were able to fix them," Perez said, speaking to members of the media including RacingNews365.com . "From now on, hopefully, there are no more surprises. Something unexpected can happen still, but we feel like we've [got] on top of them."
Red Bull in strong position to close gap to Ferrari
The problem suffered by Verstappen in Australia was investigated by Honda in Japan , which discovered the root cause and provided a fix ahead of the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix weekend. With big points on offer due to the addition of the Sprint, the race offers a chance for Red Bull to close the gap between themselves and Ferrari. Verstappen will start Sunday's race in P1, with Perez lining up in third, either side of World Championship leader Leclerc. Perez admits that it will be important for the Milton Keynes-based squad to bolster their points tally from now on. "This will be critical for us on our side, as a team, to make sure that we are able to collect the points that we are able to get, weekend by weekend," Perez added. "So far it's been extremely painful [with the retirements]."
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