Reuters
Formula One F1 – United States Grand Prix – Circuit of the Americas, Austin, Texas, U.S. – October 22, 2021 Red Bull’s Sergio Perez in the garage during practice REUTERS/Mike Blake
Reuters
Formula One F1 – United States Grand Prix – Circuit of the Americas, Austin, Texas, U.S. – October 22, 2021 Red Bull’s Sergio Perez in the garage during practice REUTERS/Mike Blake
The United States GP weekend kicked off with a bit of a bumpy start with the first free practice session. The session at COTA began with the first red flag of the weekend with Alonso’s Alpine PU and ended with a yellow flag with Raikkonen spinning off the track. However, there was also a minor incident between Sergio Perez and Mick Schumacher that had the Mexican fuming at the rookie.
In the closure of the session, Sergio Perez collided with the Haas rookie at the end of the straight. Perez was trying to overtake Schumacher at the end of the straight. While nothing major happened between the machines, the German driver left Perez vexed.
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Perez was heard complaining on the team radio. “What an idiot. He isn’t looking at the mirrors.” Schumacher, on the other hand, had nothing to say. The incident shouldn’t cause too much trouble as it was only the practice session; nothing was broken, and no one was hurt.
An intriguing practice session for Sergio Perez
Minor collision aside, the Red Bull driver stood out from the lot; Perez set some of his best lap times on the hard compound Pirellis. A majority of the grid looked more comfortable and faster on the soft. However, Checo was just as competitive on the soft boots as well.
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The Mexican finished the session seventh on the timesheets, three spots behind his teammate, Max Verstappen. Checo set a time of 1:36, while Verstappen’s best effort was 0.932 seconds off the pace of his Brackley rivals. The championship leader finished third, behind his contender, Lewis Hamilton.
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Formula One F1 – United States Grand Prix – Circuit of the Americas, Austin, Texas, U.S. – October 22, 2021 Red Bull’s Sergio Perez during practice REUTERS/Brian Snyder
Although Bottas gets a five-place PU penalty this weekend, the Mercedes machines look to fly on the tracks despite the hot weather. Although the constant upgrades weigh heavy on Bottas’ starting place, the car makes up for it in speed.
The Red Bull duo has another round of data collection ahead of them, with FP2 on the way. Will the team back in Milton Keynes find a way around the Mercedes problem? Or will Perez and Verstappen have to rely solely on their racecraft and the car at hand to get those crucial points for the championship? The qualifying session holds all the answers.
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