Perez braces for “painful race”

Sergio Perez admits it will be tough to score points during tomorrow’s race after the Force India driver could only manage P15 in qualifying for the Australian Grand Prix.

Following what has been a troubled winter for the Silverstone-based team, both VJM08s still made it to Q2 around the Albert Park Circuit. But cracking the top 10 turned out to be too lofty a goal at this stage of the year.

With the 2015-spec Force India making its track debut only at the final pre-season test, expectations within the team remain pretty low-key right now.

“I think points at the moment are out of reach but it’s Melbourne and we know how many things can happen in this race,” Perez told F1i. “It’s a shame, it’s going to be a painful race… but we’ve got to be up there trying to take every opportunity that comes up for us.

“The good thing about this car is that it is reliable. We knew since the first moment that we’ve got to bring updates very soon and push the whole team to really find pace. This is where the work is at the moment and for us, the job is to maximise what we have.”

This does not prevent Perez from looking at the brighter side of things, with both Force Indias staying within close range of the group of cars in front.

“I think there are some positives from this session. We ended up being two tenths from the Red Bull and close to the people ahead of us.

“Our race pace is better, so it will be interesting to see tomorrow how we can cope tomorrow and try to beat some of the competition.”

Click here for Saturday's gallery from the Australian Grand Prix

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