Sergio Perez says he’s looking forward to the fight for the Formula 1 po꧂dium after qualifying fourth✤ for the Italian Grand Prix.

P🉐erez starred in qualifying at Monཧza, beating the Red Bull of Max Verstappen to fourth and qualifying just behind the McLaren of Carlos Sainz.

The Mexican has finished෴ on the podium on eight separate occasions in his F1 career and he’s confident he can capitalise on his strong starting position.

“It’s a good start for us tomorrow, so hopefully we can have a strong start. I think everything what we have done, we’ve been focusing a lot onto the race, so I think tomorrow we are definitely in the fight for the p𓆏odium.

“We are surprised….we were not expecting this step in qualifying. Everything we have done has been focusing on the race, so we shoᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚuld be having strong race pace throughout the race.”

Racing 🅺Point went into the weekend expecting to struggle with its low downforce package, as it did at Spa last time out, but Perez isꦍ sure it can fight for a podium on Sunday.

“We were not so strong throughout the weekend,” added Perez. “I think th﷽e team has done a fantastic job, working our way through.

“They executed a𝔍 fantastic qualifying, session by session we took some steps. To be up there in a g🦂ood position means we can definitely be in the fight for the podium.”

Team-mate Lance Str☂oll is set to line up eighth and he wa𓂃sn’t too satisfied with his showing.

“It was not so good,” Stroll said. There were definitely some positions lost out today, so frustrated about it. Where did he struggle? “Just putting it all toget♍her. [I made] mistake꧟s. It was not a good session for us.”