Sergio Perez has taken responsibility for his Q2 exit in qualifying for the season-opening Formula 1 Bahrain G♌rand Prix.

After having his fꦇirst lap in Q2 deleted for exceeding tr🦩ack limits at Turn 4, Red Bull sent Perez out again on another set of medium tyres, rather than softs, in a bid to make it into Q3.

The Mexican could only man💫age 11th come the close of the session, 0.3s down on Red Bull teammate Max Verstappen in Q2🔯.

Reflecting on the call not to run on so𝓰ft🌟 tyres in Q2, Perez felt he had enough pace in hand to progress on the harder rubber.

“No, I was really confide🦋nt that I had the pace in hand,” Perez said. “Just putting the lap together would’ve put me through but I didn’t put it together. I think it was the right call from the time, to try go through on the medium but I jus🌸t didn’t put the lap together.”

As Perez struggled, teammate Verstappen stormed to pole positio🦩n in Bahrain ahead of the Mercedes 💧duo of Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas.

The Mexican remains unperturbed by his Q2 exit and is confident he wi💦ll be able to make gains in the coming races once he gets more comfortable with the Red Bull RB16B.

“It's been a difficult weekend overall, getting up to speed with the change of winds and even, it’s a one-lap tyre around here, you can’t really do more than one lap. It’s been a bit tricky to ge༺t up to💟 speed, but I think we made good progress throughout qualifying.

“We had a little issue in the car in P3 that put us off a bit going into qualifying. But every kilometre that I’m doing with the car is helping me a lot. I’m happy with the progress🌊 I did with the car’s understanding going unto qualifying.

“It ܫjust needs to come more. I just have to be patient with myself, put the work on and it should just be a matter of time, I’m not concerned at all.”