Sam Bird thinks Sergio Perez took the easy route and ‘blamed’ a rival Formula 1 racer after the Red Bull driver made a ‘mistake’ during qualifying for the 2024 Chinese GP.
The 34-year-old, ultimately, ended qualifying with the second-fastest lap time to his Red Bull teammate, Max Verstappen. But it was far from a simple session for Perez en route to giving the team from Milton Keynes a front-row lock-out as Verstappen sealed their 100th pole yet.
It also marked back-to-back front-row locks out for Red Bull. Perez joined Verstappen on the front row of the grid for the first time this season for the Japanese GP. He had only managed P5 for the Bahrain GP, before earning P3 for the Saudi Arabian GP and also the Australian GP.
Sam Bird feels Red Bull driver Sergio Perez ‘blamed’ Alex Albon for his Q1 off
But Red Bull almost saw Perez finish miles short of contending for the front row in qualifying for the Chinese GP. The Mexican was mightily close to facing the embarrassment of bowing out in Q1. Perez survived by the skin of his teeth in 15th place by a margin of 0.048 seconds.
The Guajajara native could only register a personal best lap time of 1:35.457 during the first stage of the session. But home hero Zhou Guanyu would only get within a slither of his time for Sauber. China’s first full-time Formula 1 driver set a 1:35.505 to top the elimination zone.
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Perez recovered his session thereafter, yet had also put himself in the position after wasting a lap earlier in Q1. The Red Bull driver failed to keep to the racing line running into Turn 1 as Alex Albon placed his Williams on the outside of the circuit to try and avoid impeding Perez.
Yet, despite Albon’s efforts to avoid impeding Perez, the Red Bull racer blamed the Williams ace. He immediately vented on Red Bull’s radio during Q1, ‘What was that?’. Albon was also quick to share his thoughts on his incident with Perez during qualifying over Williams’ radio.
“I got out of his way as much as I could,” Albon said. “There was no way I could have got out the way more.”
Sam Bird agrees with Alex Albon’s view on the Chinese GP qualifying incident
Bird agrees with Albon’s view on the Williams driver’s incident with Red Bull star Perez in Q1 during qualifying for the Chinese GP. The McLaren Formula E driver feels Albon, who got two podiums with Red Bull during 2020 before losing his seat to Perez, could not do much more.
“I would agree with Alex Albon on that,” Bird said on BBC Radio 5 Live. “He was way off the racing line. It’s up to Sergio Perez to do the normal racing line and he’s made a mistake.
“Us racing drivers, we do that. If we catch traffic and it’s off the racing line and we still make a mistake, we tend to blame the traffic. And that’s part and parcel of what we do.”
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