Sergio Perez admitted that after feeling confident in the car during the free practice sessions, he didn’t have the same feeling on Friday, and couldn’t deliver a good enough performance in qualifying.
Perez admitted that the direction Red Bull decided to take on Friday seemed a “step back”, but hopes that the changes to the car will help during the race.
“I think the whole day has not been as good as yesterday, and somehow we took a step back from what we were doing [on Thursday].
“It is something that we have to understand [especially for the race], and I hope that what we’ve done [for the race], we will be in a better position come the race and be able to have a stronger race.”
Perez concluded by saying that beating Charles Leclerc, who qualified second ahead of him, “will be a challenge”. However, he also knows that overtaking and racing in Jeddah is possible.
“[Beating Leclerc] will be a challenge, and racing here is all about race pace and degradation.
“It is a track where you can overtake, it is a place where you can race.”