MEXICO CITY, Mexico -- Home hero Sergio Perez was concerned about his pace during Friday practice for the Mexican Grand Prix after setting a time over a second off Force India teammate Nico Hulkenberg.
Both Force India drivers opted not to use the faster super-soft compound in second practice, but that did not stop Hulkenberg setting the sixth fastest time, just 0.784s off the best lap overall by Sebastian Vettel. Pirelli's data suggests there is a 0.9s time advantage to be gained by using the super-soft over the soft, suggesting Hulkenberg's time was on a par or quicker than Vettel.
"I'm not sure it's as big as that," Hulkenberg said. "Yeah, I think there will be a little bit of lap time in going to the super-softs. But it's only Friday and usually Williams pick it up a lot from Friday to Saturday and the top teams as well. No need to get excited."
However, Perez was over a second off Hulkenberg's time and the team's data suggests he is missing downforce at the rear.
"On my side I'm a bit concerned because we can see I'm not generating on my performance run enough rear temperature on the tyre and we don't know why," the Mexican said. "We see less load but we don't understand why. We have checked the car and there is nothing wrong with it so I'm a bit concerned by that, but I fully trust my team that we will figure out what's wrong at the moment.
"No, I also have a big feeling in the car. One second around the track is a massive amount so there's definitely something going on that we cannot understand today."