“Max Verstappen is on a planet of his own,” said Carlos Sainz after the Spanish Grand Prix qualifying. After a dominant victory in Monte Carlo, Verstappen looks all ready to pick up from where he left off last weekend. He came into this weekend with a circuit that had changed, and rivals who brought upgrades, and yet still the Red Bull in Verstappen’s hands looked so dominant than the rest. As a result, Verstappen put in a superb lap of 1:12.272s to seal his fourth pole position of the year on the tricky rain-fallen track. Meanwhile, his teammate Sergio Perez made another error that’d cost him on Sunday. 

While the Dutchman was so comfortably ahead that he aborted his last flying lap, his teammate Perez had a much scruffier session in the same machinery. Having barely made it through to Q2, Perez went on a flying lap on dusty tires, looking confused. The Mexican ran wide into the gravel at Turn 5 and ruined his tires. With no time left to pit for a fresh set, he failed to drag a lap out of the bag when it mattered and exited in Q2. As a result, while Verstappen starts Sunday’s race in P1, Perez has to settle for a lowly P11. But the question is: how did one driver fail, while the other excelled in the same machinery?

According to analyst Peter Windsor, it is because Verstappen has completely changed his driving style to adapt to the circumstances, while Sergio Pérez was unable to do so. Explaining the Dutchman’s strategy, Windsor said, “This is what Max did, and this is just my opinion: during the day, and yesterday as well, I noticed that Max made his turns longer than usual. He’s still as precise as ever, but there’s no denying that coming out of turn two and going into turn three, which is a place where you normally want to be careful with your tires, he leaned more on the tires there than usual.” [translated via Google]

Explaining why Pérez fell through the basket, 71-year-old Briton said, “In the third free practice I found it interesting that he did that, while Pérez did exactly what Verstappen does on a normal day (namely cut the corner shorter, ed.). I think Max, with Adrian Newey in his ear, cut the corners as hard as possible by making the corners a little longer. He really got the tires working in turn four.”

Praising the performance of the world champion, Windsor described Verstappen as a chameleon. He said: “He’s absolutely amazing. The great thing about Max is that he feels exactly how to drive and can fully adjust his driving style accordingly. No one else thought like Max. It would have been very easy for him to drive like usual, and then he could have been a second slower. The Red Bull had to be driven exactly as Max did.”

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After a dominant qualifying, Max Verstappen’s victory in the Spanish GP is a foregone conclusion. However, on the other side of the garage, Sergio Perez rues a lack of confidence after a surprise Q2 exit.

Sergio Perez reflects on early qualifying exit; sets an ambitious target 

After Perez won in Baku, he reduced Championship leader Max Verstappen’s lead to just 6 points and appeared as a legitimate title contender. However, a series of disasters followed, denting the Mexican’s title hopes beyond recovery. Going into Monaco GP, Perez was just 14 points adrift of Verstappen, and what better chance for ‘the king of streets’ to win his place at the top of the driver’s table? However, Perez crashed, binning his chance, and raising questions about his capabilities to challenge the reigning world champion. Nevertheless, Perez remained optimistic about his chances, while acknowledging his mistake. ‘I still have hopes for the title’, he declared. 

Going into the Spanish Grand Prix weekend, Perez hoped to get back to his normal level and reduce the gap to the Championship leader Max Verstappen. However, the Mexican man delivered another disastrous performance. But even though he will begin the race from the midfield, the Mexican is hopeful he will be able to work his way back up through the pack again. “I think it was a little bit damp going into Turn 5 and I ended up losing the car, unfortunately. I hope I can recover everything and get to the podium, that would be an ideal scenario for us tomorrow, but we will try everything we possibly can,” said Perez.

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Sergio Perez now sits in second place in the drivers’ Championship with 105 points, while sits at the top with 144 points