Sergio Perez hopes Racing Point can "minimise" any impact from his engine issue in second practice at the Belgian Grand Prix.
A strong day for the Silverstone-based outfit was blighted by first Lance Stroll reporting burning over the radio before the Mexican pulled over in the final minutes with smoke and a flick of flame coming from the exhaust.
More worryingly for Racing Point, the engine in the car was the latest Spec 3 unit from Mercedes and on a day when both drivers had been in the top 10 in both sessions, Perez fears their weekend could be disrupted.
“It doesn’t look good - we’ll see what’s going to happen and what we have to do in order to get it back in qualifying," he was quoted by Crash.net after revealing the cause of the stoppage was still unknown.
“The car is performing well so hopefully we can minimise the damage if there is any. We’ll find out later on.”
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Racing Point has traditionally gone well at Spa-Francorchamps which explains some of their improved pace, but the team is also extracting more performance from a raft of upgrades brought to recent races, including more in Belgium.
"We’ve brought a front wing and a couple of new pieces that I think is helping the whole balance of the car. We found a good balance today and things are looking very solid," Perez continued.
“In that regard I’m positive, things are looking strong for us so hopefully, in the end, we don’t have to do too much. There’s still a lot of work to do.
“It’s getting there, step-by-step so yeah it’s looking promising, so hopefully we can be strong tomorrow when everybody puts it together.”
The emphasis is on Checo to get a strong result too with Stroll starting from the back due to engine penalties.
“It’s a bummer but at least you can overtake, I got a good feel for the car in the long run so I’m happy and we’ll be able to overtake for sure,” the Canadian said.
