Perez still angry as penalty dampens 'one of the best laps'

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Sergio Perez finished qualifying for the Grand Prix of Europe in second place, which he admitted was more than Force India had dreamed of coming into Formula One's maiden event in Baku.

"I think we were expecting ourselves to be strong around here, but not that good," he admitted afterwards.

"To come away with P2 on this track, it is so easy to make a mistake, and so easy to clip the wall and damage your car. Unfortunately it happened to me at the worse possible time in FP3.

"[Qualifying] was a very difficult session for me because there is not a lot of time after a crash and you lose some confidence and to get it back and to get in the rhythm again."

The accident in the Saturday morning session forced the team to change the gearbox in Perez' car, which means he incurs a five place grid penalty for Sunday's race. Instead of starting on the front row alongside pole winner Nico Rosberg, Perez will now line up in seventh.

"Obviously I am a bit angry still with my mistake this morning," he said. "It is a mix of feelings for me today.

"I think that my lap was definitely one of the best laps in such a difficult place to get 100 per cent around the car.

"That lap was quite strong in hitting every single braking point and getting the exits as close as possible to the wall and I told the team that lap couldn’t have been better.

"I am pleased with the result and with the penalty tomorrow it is a bit of a shame but let’s see what we can do.

"I think this is a track where you can overtake and you can have a good race. It will be good to enjoy the race. I think there will be a lot happening and lot of safety cars. I am looking forward to tomorrow.

"I think you are going to see some crashes and some mistakes. Hopefully not me again, but there will obviously be mistakes around here, because it is so difficult and we are all pushing to the maximum."

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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.