Red Bull’s Sergio Perez will be in action on home turf at the Red Bull Ring in the Austrian GP this weekend
Sergio Perez is eagerly looking forward to racing at his home circuit in the Austrian GP, set to take place from 08-10 July. Perez has made a good start to this year’s championship – his best-ever in Formula 1, which sees him in second place in the drivers’ championship. The Mexican is coming into the race high on confidence after securing a second-place finish in the previous race in Canada.
Perez, though, is facing a battle at Red Bull as their recent upgrades have given the RB18 a sharper front end, that’s more to Verstappen’s likening. Speaking ahead of Friday’s practice session, Perez said – “Well, it’s just going away from me in terms of how comfortable I was in the beginning. But saying that, I’ve had only two races and last weekend I wasn’t up to it, I was feeling pretty bad, so I think this is the first weekend where I will see really.”
The Mexican driver will line up on the Red Bull Ring grid 34 points behind Verstappen in the Drivers’ Championship. Although he is P2 to his team-mate, Perez has bagged just one race victory compared to Verstappen’s six. Both drivers have two DNFs on the board. Perez has some catching up to do and given the fact that Verstappen is the most successful driver at the Red Bull Ring (3 titles to his name), doesn’t quite work in the Mexican’s favor.
Despite a disappointing outing for Verstappen at Silverstone, Red Bull dominates the drivers’ championship standings. Max Verstappen leads the standings with 181 points, followed closely by team-mate Sergio Perez on 147. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc occupies third place with 138 points ahead of British GP winner, Carlos Sainz – who is fourth with 127 points.
In the constructors’ championship, Red Bull leads the table with 328 points, and Ferrari is much behind in second place with 265 points. Mercedes have significantly reduced the gap between them and Ferrari. They occupy third place having earned 204 points.
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