Red Bull team principal Christian Horner heaped praise on Sergio Perez after his drive from ninth to third in the Hungarian Grand Prix, but acknowledged he must improve his qualifying performances.
Perez ended a five-race run of failing to reach Q3 at the Hungaroring. However he qualified almost half a second slower than team mate Max Verstappen and only lined up ninth on the grid.
From there he climbed through the field to finish third. Afterwards Horner said Perez had produced “a really strong drive” at the Hungaroring.
“He got his elbows out, he had great pace, [did] moves on Fernando [Alonso], on Carlos Sainz, on Oscar [Piastri], on George Russell. There was some phenomenal racing.
“To get onto the podium, he was hunting Lando [Norris] down towards the end of the race there. Really [well] deserved from him, so really, really proud of his performance today.”
Over the previous five grands prix Perez had only taken one podium finish and lost significant ground to Verstappen in the drivers’ championship. Horner believes he “will take a lot of confidence” from the result after “facing a bit of criticism” for his performance.
“It was super-hard racing today and I thought he did his talking on the circuit today, which is always great to see.”
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Perez had started his weekend at the Hungaroring in the worst way possible by crashing in the first practice session, so to make the podium “was the best payback he could give his mechanics and team”, reckoned Horner.
“The problem is you guys [the media] wind things up and you can go from hero to zero in this business pretty quickly. He’s not immune to that. And I think he responded in the best possible way and did his talking on the circuit and delivered a great performance.
“Formula 1’s a pressure business, he knows that. He’s been around long enough to know the pressures there are in F1 and at Red Bull sometimes that’s even more heightened. But he’s responded in the best possible way, and I think he’ll be more than happy with his drive.”
However Horner acknowledged Perez had fallen short in qualifying in recent races. Last weekend was only the fifth time he has reached Q3 in 11 events this year in a car which remains undefeated in race trim.
“He needs to put more emphasis on Saturday because that’s the bit that’s missing,” said Horner. “Once he gets that nailed – he was in Q3 this weekend, I think I’ll take confidence from that.
“As soon as he starts qualifying in the first couple of rows then you’re back in business.”
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2023 Hungarian Grand Prix
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