Having made a superb preliminary launch from fourth on the grid, Perez was ready to attract alongside the 2 Ferraris forward of him and make a lunge to seize second place behind polesitter Verstappen.
However the Mexican was unable to get his automobile slowed down on time as he hit the brakes approaching Flip 1, almost hitting the again of Verstappen’s related RB20 as they navigated the tight right-hander.
Perez ultimately ran extensive over the tarmac run-off space and rejoined the monitor in fifth place, behind not solely Ferrari duo Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz but additionally McLaren’s Oscar Piastri.
Horner feels a poor getaway for second-placed Leclerc opened up a chance for Perez initially, however Pink Bull got here near having each its vehicles concerned in a painful first-lap incident.
“His begin was optimistic. Charles did not have a fantastic begin forward, I feel that precipitated Checo… he needed to elevate for Charles after which he had a window into the primary nook,” defined Horner.
“He went for it, clearly acquired in very deep and was fortunate to not acquire Max on the first flip and to not acquire the Ferrari coming again onto the monitor.
“So I used to be happy to see most vehicles survive that.”
Verstappen revealed that he noticed Perez closing in on him at Flip 1, however a catastrophe was averted because the Mexican nearly managed to keep away from crashing into the triple champion’s automobile earlier than working deep into the nook.
Sergio Perez, Pink Bull Racing RB20
Picture by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images
“I used to be very conscious. I turned in and I noticed him lock up,” he stated. “And I taken care of the race, there was like a scratch on my diffuser. So one thing should have hit.
“However yeah, it was very shut. May have led to a catastrophe, in fact, for the workforce as nicely. So yeah, fortunate.”
Missing the tempo to mount a major restoration, Perez might muster simply fifth on the flag, which turned fourth when Sainz was hit with a post-race penalty for an incident with Piastri after the security automobile restart.
Perez admitted that he needed to take avoiding motion after coming perilously shut with Verstappen in a nook that had already witnessed a race-ending conflict between McLaren’s Lando Norris and the Aston Martins in Saturday’s dash.
“I had a superb begin, Charles had a very dangerous begin, however as quickly as I brake into the within there was no grip, like with Lewis [Hamilton] yesterday [in the Sprint],” he defined.
“And offline there was no grip, and I ended up locking. I almost took off Max out. So I needed to come off the brake and I misplaced a place to Oscar.
“It was fairly unlucky, however apart from that, I feel, we have been struggling for some tempo right now. We simply could not handle to get a tempo the place we wanted and, yeah, one thing that we set to work on to attempt to perceive why, what was the problem.”
Extra reporting by Filip Cleeren and Ronald Vording