Perez explains Verstappen’s lead over him by saying, “Max is just in top form.”.

Sergio Perez struggled a lot more during qualifying for the Japanese Grand Prix than Max Verstappen did.
At the Suzuka Circuit, the Mexican was only able to finish in fifth place.
Perez will have new opportunities tomorrow since he was not particularly happy with his own qualifying.

Straight up, I was expecting it, Perez said to Viaplay after qualifying. I had a really shaky qualifying, and losing that second set in Q2 was especially costly. After that initial run, we didn’t believe we had the margin, but in retrospect, we did,” the Red Bull driver said.

After finishing fifth in qualifying for the Japanese Grand Prix, the Mexican driver claimed, “I think Max has been on a very high form and I haven’t been able to extract the maximum from the car.”.
Perez added, “I haven’t been comfortable since I got here, so we often see this kind of gap.

During the race on Sunday, Perez will have to start from the third row of the grid.
To win the race in Japan, the 33-year-old Guadalajara driver will have to pass Verstappen, Oscar Piastri, Lando Norris, and Charles Leclerc.