Red Bull got a little confused during the first qualifying session at the Singapore Grand Prix as Sergio Perez got held by his team-mate, Max Verstappen.
Perez was on a flying lap early on in the session, while his world champion team-mate was on a slow run in preparation for a flying lap.
The 25-year-old was travelling slowly as he came into the final two turns of the circuit, forcing the Mexican to scrub some speed as he finished his lap.
It was good enough for Perez to go third, but despite that, the Red Bull engineers believed that Perez had aborted his run.
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They therefore did not ask Verstappen to move out of the way, and Perez came over the radio to ask what was happening.
Perez spent much of qualifying trading places at the top of the timesheets with Verstappen, Charles Leclerc, Sir Lewis Hamilton Carlos Sainz, and Fernando Alonso.
In a session that transitioned from wet to dry, the 32-year-old ended up going second fastest ahead of Hamilton, as Leclerc claimed his ninth pole of the year.
Verstappen was then caught out by a lack of fuel in his car at the end of the session, and he needed enough to provide a one-litre sample to the scrutineers.
He ended up down in eighth as a result, on a weekend when he might wrap up the championship.
For Perez’s part, he is aiming to take the lead off the start on Sunday.
“[I’m looking forward] to that start, I think it’s a real opportunity tomorrow, already from the start, to attack Charles and go for the win,” he told Naomi Schiff after the session.
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“I’m quite disappointed to miss out on pole by two hundredths, but at the end of the day, it’s a great team result.
“My team did a fantastic job, [they made the] right calls out there, and pretty happy and solid job.”
This is the first time the Mexican has started on the front row of the grid at the Singapore Grand Prix.