Sergio Perez spun with his Red Bull RB 18 and breached the gravel beside the track which forced him to end early

Sergio Perez had a decent outing in spite of this hiccup towards the end of the day. The Red Bull driver completed 137 laps and finished 10th overall in the drivers’ rankings for the day.

Towards the end of the session, Perez and his RB 18 ended in gravel as, during a Virtual Safety Car, he lit up the tyres exiting turn 8 and brought out the day’s second and final red flag. Perez however was happy with the day’s work and called it a “productive day” for the team.

Perez summed up his Day 1 of the Bahrain test to the media after the session. The Mexican said, “It was a very productive day, plenty of laps, good information, a very different circuit with a different set of challenges. It was nice to get a rhythm in the car on a very different track, very different issues.” He further added, “Towards the end of the day we were trying the different aero programme on cold tyres and on the virtual safety car I just lost it and that was it.”

Sergio Perez explained how different the Bahrain track is from that in Barcelona

Sergio Perez explained the variety of challenges the Bahrain circuit presents to the driver and how different it is from Circuit de Catalunya, in Barcelona the previous testing venue. “What he had in Barcelona to what we had here, the issues that we had that were there are very different, so in general yes I think, a good baseline today. Plenty of information to go through and hopefully tomorrow with Max we are able to do a couple of steps and then for the final day, get our final read on the car”, said the Red Bull driver.

Perez further added, “Barcelona was all about the front-end limitations for everyone, I think with the cold temperatures. And then you come to Bahrain the roughest circuit on the calendar, so automatically you have more rear bias. So yes, I think just the usual stuff, learning from the balance, from the car, aerodynamics and so on.”

Perez will be looking to get accustomed to the Bahrain track quickly before the lights go out on March 20 for the season opener – the Bahrain Grand Prix.

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