Sergio Perez ends the speculation around his Formula 1 future confirming his place alongside Max Verstappen in Red Bull’s 2021 driver line up, Perez completes the final piece of the 2021 driver market puzzle as Lewis Hamilton is expected to resign with Mercedes.
Perez will join the Milton Keynes based team on a one-year contract, the 30-year old Mexican will be the first driver promoted into a Red Bull race seat who has not come directly from its junior program, since Mark Webber retired in 2013.
Released a year early from his contract with current team Racing Point, Perez made way for Sebastian Vettel as the team re-brand as Aston Martin.
Making his Grand Prix debut in 2011, Perez has since then become one of the sport’s most consistent performers and tenacious racers. Sergio’s recent run of form and victory at the Sakhir Grand Prix made him the favoured choice to join Red Bull Racing.
“I am incredibly grateful to Red Bull for giving me the opportunity to race for Red Bull Racing in 2021,” said Perez.
“The chance to race for a championship contending team is something I have been hoping for since I joined Formula One and it will be a proud moment to step onto the grid in Red Bull colours alongside Max.
“You can be sure that I will give next season my full focus. The Team has the same winning mentality as me and I know I am here to perform and help the team fight for another title.”
Driver Alex Albon steps aside from his current role to make way for Perez, having finished 7th in the 2020 drivers championship and taking two podium finishes in the Tuscan and Bahrain grands prix.
Albon now takes on the role of Red Bull Racing Test and Reserve Driver with a key focus on 2022 development, simulator work and tyre testing.
Red Bull Racing Team Principal, Christian Horner said performance and data gave reason to the team’s decision.
“Alex is a valued member of the Team and we thought long and hard about this decision,” Horner said.
“Having taken our time to evaluate all the relevant data and performances we have decided that Sergio is the right driver to partner Max for 2021 and look forward to welcoming him to Red Bull Racing.
“Alex remains an important part of our Team as Test and Reserve Driver with a key focus on 2022 development and we would like to thank him for his hard work and contribution.”
Valtteri Bottas claimed his fifth pole position of the 2020 season and second at Bahrain alongside super sub George Russell, who turned his first ever Q3 appearance into P2 on the grid, securing the 12th Mercedes front row lockout of the season ahead of Red Bulls’ Max Verstappen in P3.
Bottas has shouldered the leadership role at Mercedes admirably in the absence of Lewis Hamilton who tested positive to COVID-19, the Fin secured pole from his stand-in teammate and denied Verstappen who lead the time sheets in Q2.
“It’s great to be on pole, I’m happy with that, but this wasn’t my best qualifying. My second run in Q3 was decent, but I think there was still a bit of time missing in Turn 7 and 8,” Bottas said after qualifying.
“I was the first car out on track on the final run, so I didn’t have a tow and ultimately couldn’t improve. It was fairly close in the end, so I’m pleased it was enough for pole position,” Bottas said after qualifying.
“It’s great to see George in P2 and that we managed to lock out the front row for the team. I’m not really surprised to see him up there, he kept improving throughout the weekend and particularly through qualifying.
“We’re starting on the Medium tyre tomorrow, which should put us in a good position in terms of strategy.
“Max is going to have an advantage for the race start itself with the softer tyre, but we think for the race overall we’re on the better tyre. The track is quite bumpy and it’s actually fairly easy to follow other cars thanks to the tow, but we’re in the best possible position for tomorrow and are looking forward to a fun race.”
Russell was impressive, keeping hot on the heels of Bottas with every lap, the 22-year old Brit was just 16 thousandths down on Bottas in Q2, ultimately just missing pole by 20 millliseconds – it’s the first time Russell has ever been out-qualified by any teammate in three seasons of Formula 1.
Thumbs up! P2 for George Russell – Image: Steve Etherington
“Obviously, I’m a bit gutted to miss out on pole by 20 milliseconds, but if you’d told me last week that I’d be qualifying P2 on the grid, I wouldn’t have believed you,” Russell said.
“I’ve got nobody in front of me tomorrow, which I’ve not experienced for a long time. It’s going to be a really tricky race on such a short track layout, but we’re in a good position starting on the Mediums. I’ll give it my all and see what I can do.”
For Verstappen it was an opportunity that went begging topping the time sheets in FP3 and challenging Mercedes throughout qualifying.
“Close, but not quite close enough. We can be happy about qualifying, and although we always want more, for us to be P3 on a track like this is pretty good,” Verstappen said.
“The gap is very close and it is a bit of a shame to miss out by so little. On such a short lap it was always going to be very tight but I think I got the most out of the lap.”
Verstappen will be with the support of his teammate Alex Albon who will start from P12 on the grid, Albon narrowly escaped elimination from Q1.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc’s blinding opening lap in Q3 of 53.613s locked away an unexpected P4, Ferrari chose not to run Leclerc’s car again, it appeared Ferrari postured to its rivals ‘Beat that,’ but with limited sets of Soft tyres available for the race it was a calculated risk – teammate Sebastian Vettel will start from p13 on the grid.
Racing Point’s Sergio Perez put in another solid performance taking P5, out-qualifying teammate Lance Stroll (P10) by six tenths of a second, both Racing Point cars in the top ten is a firm footing in the constructor’s points battle against the lone rival cars of McLaren and Renault
Alpha Tauri’s Daniil Kvyat performed his best qualifying effort for the season taking P6 ahead of teammate Pierre Gasly in P9, the Alpha Tauri’s split by Australia’s Daniel Ricciardo (P7) and Mc Laren’s Carlos Sainz in P8.
The Sakhir Grand Prix begins 3:40am ACDST Monday.
Full qualifying results:
Pos
No
Driver
Car
Q1
Q2
Q3
Laps
1
77
Valtteri Bottas
Mercedes
53.904
53.803
53.377
24
2
63
George Russell
Mercedes
54.160
53.819
53.403
25
3
33
Max Verstappen
Red Bull Racing Honda
54.037
53.647
53.433
17
4
16
Charles Leclerc
Ferrari
54.249
53.825
53.613
21
5
11
Sergio Perez
Racing Point BWT Mercedes
54.236
53.787
53.790
17
6
26
Daniil Kvyat
AlphaTauri Honda
54.346
53.856
53.906
26
7
3
Daniel Ricciardo
Renault
54.388
53.871
53.957
15
8
55
Carlos Sainz
McLaren Renault
54.450
53.818
54.010
20
9
10
Pierre Gasly
AlphaTauri Honda
54.207
53.941
54.154
28
10
18
Lance Stroll
Racing Point BWT Mercedes
54.595
53.840
54.200
19
11
31
Esteban Ocon
Renault
54.309
53.995
13
12
23
Alexander Albon
Red Bull Racing Honda
54.620
54.026
12
13
5
Sebastian Vettel
Ferrari
54.301
54.175
17
14
99
Antonio Giovinazzi
Alfa Romeo Racing Ferrari
54.523
54.377
14
15
4
Lando Norris
McLaren Renault
54.194
54.693
15
16
20
Kevin Magnussen
Haas Ferrari
54.705
9
17
6
Nicholas Latifi
Williams Mercedes
54.796
11
18
89
Jack Aitken
Williams Mercedes
54.892
9
19
7
Kimi Räikkönen
Alfa Romeo Racing Ferrari
54.963
11
20
51
Pietro Fittipaldi
Haas Ferrari
55.426
11
Q1 107% time – 57.677
Note – Fittipaldi required to start from back of grid for use of additional power unit elements.
Grandprixnet.com 