Force India’s Sergio Perez has been pleased with his qualifying performance at the Spanish Grand Prix and wants to get a good result for the amount of work and effort the team have put into his car.
The Mexican set a lap time of 1m23.782s to finish ninth in qualifying, only faster than McLaren’s Fernando Alonso in the Q3 session. He outqualified his teammate Nico Hulkenberg for the fourth time in 2016 and was the only Force India car in Q3 for the second successive race.
However, he still lies behind his team-mate in the Drivers’ Championship after four rounds, with only two points compared to Hulkenberg’s six.
“I’m very happy to be starting ninth,” Perez said. “This track has traditionally been a difficult one for us, so to come here with our upgrade and make Q3 feels pretty good.
“I think there was the potential to be even faster on my Q3 lap, but I’m still happy with the result. I expect us to be strong in the race and we have a good track position, which is important on this track where it’s never easy to overtake.
“In the first stint, the cars starting just outside the top ten on fresh tyres will be a threat, but I am confident we can make a good start and stay ahead. Strategy will be important, as well as tyre management, but it’s not easy if you get involved in battles that take the life out of your tyres.
“If we can come away with a good number of points it will be a nice reward for the team’s hard work and effort recently.”
