Monaco : Sahara Force India’s chances of earning points brightened with Sergio Perez securing a seventh place start from the grid while Nico Hulkenberg is likely to start from 11th after finishing 13th in the Qualifying session for the Monaco GP on Saturday.
Perez improved on his timing of 1:16.808 in Q3 secured him seventh place. “I always say qualifying in Monaco counts for 90% of your final result, so it was important to be strong. To be quick here you need confidence in the car and in yourself, and I had both today. To make it through to Q3 was already a great effort by the team, but to be starting P7 means we have already done a lot of the hard work for the race,”Perez said.
“We went early in Q3 because we thought the rain was coming and I had a mega lap. I was worried some of the others might improve their times, but fortunately it was not the case. We have a good opportunity to score some important points. We know that anything can happen on a Sunday in Monaco, but I’m focussed on getting a clean start and a good first lap.”
Hulkenberg, who brushed with barriers in Q1, also had a good day out there. “My final lap was a very good one and I believe I could have been firmly in the top ten, but unfortunately I made a small mistake in the final corner, which cost me enough time to miss out on Q3. I am likely to be 11th on the grid, which means we will need to choose the right strategy to try and make up some positions.”
