Mexico's Perez hits another bump in the road

MEXICO CITY – Sergio Perez’s self-proclaimed “terrible” season took another turn for the worse on Saturday as he qualified 18th for his home race.

Perez failed to progress through Q1, finishing 0.8s off teammate Max Verstappen’s time in the same session.

The result will do little to quieten the noise which has lingered around his future all season.

Although Perez has a contract for 2025, Red Bull is believed to be assessing Liam Lawson at RB as a potential replacement for next season.

“It’s obviously very disappointing,” Perez said after the session. “It’s a grand prix I want to do really well, it’s this one. Unfortunately it’s been really difficult and tricky, this event.”

Perez suggested he has been fighting with the same car issue for a little while.

“I’m been struggling quite a bit with braking. Every time I try to brake and attack the braking, I just put too much energy through the tyres, and that makes it very tricky for me to stop the car.

“It’s been there for the last three races, where I cannot stop the car. I’m having to modulate quite a lot my braking, and that’s something we can see in the data, but we are not able to fix it at the moment.”

Red Bull boss Christian Horner has dismissed suggestions Red Bull are looking at alternative options.

“Checo is our driver,” Horner said on Friday. “He’s contracted for 2025. He’s competitive. He’s hungry. He’s not happy with where he currently is. As a team, we’re doing our very best to support him.”