Perez set for 'tactical' penalties after qualifying misfire

Sergio Perez looks likely to intentionally incur a tactical grid penalty for tomorrow's Dutch Grand Prix, after suffering a deeply disappointing qualifying session at Zandvoort.

The Mexican was unable to start his final flying lap at the end of Q1 after being held up on his way to the start-finish line, and as a result he missed the cut which means he is currently set to start from 16th on the grid.

“We sent him out with enough time,” insisted team principal Christian Horner. “But they all went backwards in the pit lane and he lost a lot on the track.

"He just missed out on getting another run by a second and a half. It was massively frustrating for him and the team so we’ll have to fight back tomorrow

• Read also: Verstappen narrowly secures home pole for Dutch GP

Perez was certainly unhappy to be knocked out so early in the session. "It hurts, it hurts really badly," he told the media afterwards. “Very disappointed today because we had such a fantastic car.

"We could have had two cars up there tomorrow, possibly locking out the front row and so we really didn’t expect to be in this position.

"It's really, really hard to digest this one with the level of car we have underneath us. But there's nothing I can do now. I am certain we will learn from it and just move on.

"We are new, we have a new group of people in the team [on this side of the garage] so we're just getting on top of things," Perez replied when asked by RacingNews365.com why such setbacks always seemed to happen to him and not his team mate Max Verstappen who will start from pole.

"We're just learning, and with time we're making sure that we learn from our mistakes as this is how we will get stronger as a team.

“We did everything we possibly could," he continued. "We were making very good progress. I think we had big potential for today and we missed just a couple of things.

"Things happen. I think our cut-off wasn't expecting this track evolution that we had at the end of Q1," he suggested. "We were monitoring lap times from other people, and then we realised that we were in a bit of a mess and we didn't manage to complete the lap.

“We were probably carrying just a bit too much fuel for Q1," he added. "We were less safe than we thought, and in the end people were making gaps in the pit lane.

"I just missed out [starting the lap] by a second and a half, or something like that, which is extremely frustrating, because we definitely had the pace today to be on the front row.

"It was getting a bit messier with the guys I had to let through," he added. "I didn't know how critical it was at the time. I think we left the garage with two minutes so we had plenty of time.

"But there were people making a gap in the pit lane so a lot of factors meant we lost our lap," he sighed. "It was just a massive blow up for us."

With his race already seriously compromised, the team is now likely to make multiple strategic changes to his car that will drop him to the back of the grid for the start.

Red Bull are studying the option of adding a new power unit and gearbox to the pool of components available to Perez to get him through the remaining races in 2021.

"As many parts as possible,” Red Bull motorsports consultant Dr Helmut Marko told Servus TV when asked which items the team was thinking of changing.

He added that this would mean that "we can minimise the damage, so to speak, and have no more penalties for the rest of the season.”

But Perez isn't ruling out an epic comeback drive on Sunday, even if it's from dead last on the grid.

"I think we're facing a race that no one really knows what to expect. There are a lot of things that will happen coming up.

"It's a circuit that demands a lot from the drivers," he said. "Anything will be possible tomorrow. It will be hard to overtake, it will be hard to follow.

"We just have to stay and do our race as good as possible," he summarised. "Let's see what happens."

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