Motorsport: Chesterfield driver Seb Perez takes part in F1 British Grand Prix meeting at Silverstone

Seb Perez made a very respectable Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup debut at the British Grand Prix meeting as he raced in front of huge crowds at Silverstone in Northamptonshire.
Sebastian Perez on his way to a respectable 19th finish in his Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup debut at the 2019 British GP meeting SilverstoneSebastian Perez on his way to a respectable 19th finish in his Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup debut at the 2019 British GP meeting Silverstone
Sebastian Perez on his way to a respectable 19th finish in his Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup debut at the 2019 British GP meeting Silverstone

Taking a break from the Porsche Carrera Cup GB series, Perez was stepping up to the highest level of Porsche one-make competition with their 485bhp Porsche 911 GT3 Cup race cars that support the F1 races around the world.

The 19-year old was up against some extremely experienced drivers in round 4 of the series that is renowned for somewhat tough driving tactics that very much belies the value of the cars involved.

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Having just one practice session to acclimatise to a different handling characteristic of the Supercup car compared to his usual Carrera Cup car, Perez also had to learn the limits and grip levels on the newly-resurfaced Silverstone circuit.

So after a solid practice session, the Amigos-backed driver was disappointed to line up 22nd overall and 7th of the rookie drivers after qualifying, not quite hooking up a clear lap when the tyres were at their best.

“Things went okay in practice,” said Perez. “But we were on the back foot for qualifying as we mis-timed our runs a little, got caught with a yellow flag, and didn’t really maximise it. It wasn’t a million miles off but shows how tough Supercup is”.

Taking to the track for the final support race ahead of the British Grand Prix in front of an amazing crowd of 141,000 fans, Perez made up a couple of places at the start, drove a clean race, although was stuck at the rear of a big pack of cars.

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Frustratingly, he wasn’t able to make up any further positions, eventually he settled in to a race-long battle with Carrera Cup rival Josh Webster, and with just nine seconds covering ten drivers at the flag, Perez finished 19th overall in the 30-car field.

Regardless of the result, Perez took a positive approach to the weekend, learning lots and increasing his knowledge, “I had a good start, but was at the back of a competitive pack”.

He commented, “It was a great dice with Josh but I stayed where I was. It’s superb to be here, a fantastic experience to be at the Supercup and to battle with some of these drivers is amazing. Especially for us to come in and finish mid-pack, It was a massive learning curve, but it was good to try something different!”