Sergio Perez still believes in his chances of winning the world championship this year despite falling 39 points behind his team mate after the Monaco Grand Prix.
The Red Bull driver suffered a tough weekend in Monaco after crashing in the first phase of qualifying which left him last on the grid. Perez explained why he spun into the barrier at Sainte Devote and and said he took full responsibility for it.
“I should have taken things a bit easier,” he said. “Everything was too late, it was a combination of things.
“We decided last-minute to go for that lap and then we had the Alpine just in front of us. We had a lot of tailwind basically going on the braking.
“So in hindsight just being next time in Monaco in Q1 probably not taking those decisions last minute will help us as well. But on top of all, I should have done a better job at pre-empting the situation.”
“It’s hard,” he added. “But for me the most important of these things is to accept when you do a mistake as a driver, put your hand up, apologise to your team first of all and then learn from it and understand what happened. And I’ve done that.”
His team mate Max Verstappen took pole position and won the race. The Red Bull duo have swept to victory in all six grands prix so far this year, Verstappen taking four to Perez’s two.
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However Perez remains convinced he can beat his team mate to the championship. “Yes, because the speed is there,” he said. “For example, even if this crash [didn’t] happen and I was half a second, a second off, then I would be more concerned.
“But the positive thing is that we have the speed to be able to swing around things. But for now I mainly focus on weekend by weekend. I want to win this weekend and get victories on my side.”
This is Perez’s third season at Red Bull, during which time Verstappen has won two world championships. Perez says he is in better shape to take the fight to his team mate this year.
“I’ve been a match to Max since since the beginning of the season, in one way or another, sometimes better, sometimes worse. And it’s what I believe that you have to be.
“I think being team mates with Max, it’s probably the toughest thing you can have because it’s a driver that is on most form of all. But I do believe that it’s possible to beat him.”
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