Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsForce India

Final Q3 lap was 'fantastic' - Perez

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Sergio Perez described his final lap in Q3 as "fantastic" after qualifying seventh for the Russian Grand Prix.

While team-mate Nico Hulkenberg dropped out in Q2, Perez managed to make it through to the final part of qualifying for the second race in succession. The Force India driver then managed to outqualify Daniil Kvyat and Max Verstappen, and will start sixth as a result of Sebastian Vettel's grid penalty.

“I am very pleased with our performance today and my final lap in Q3 was fantastic – just when it mattered," Perez said. "We were strong in Q1 and Q2; I was feeling very comfortable in the car and I was able to deliver great laps in each of the sessions."

Force India has enjoyed good qualifying form so far this season but failed to translate that into results, but Perez is confident it is in better shape in Russia.

"We are making good progress as a team and our pace over one lap is very strong: it will be interesting to see how we perform tomorrow because we have a fast car behind us and it will be a big challenge to hold our position.

"This is not a track that helps overtaking so there should be some nice battles. We have enough tyres to choose the best strategy tomorrow and I am optimistic we can come away with a nice result.”

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.