Korean GP: Sergio Perez plays down Sauber's giantkilling chances

The Mexican failed to make it through to Q3 at Yeongam after losing time when he backed off for a yellow flag in the final sector.

Although there have been several times this season when Perez has battled back through the field from a lowly grid place, he doubts whether he can pull that off this time.

"Will it be a mega day tomorrow? No," explained Perez. "I think we can be in the points but I am not very optimistic to be honest. We can do some points and that is my target tomorrow. But not to score good points."

When asked by AUTOSPORT why he was not so confident about his chances, Perez replied: "First of all the wear is quite a lot on the tyres. Degradation is quite big and I think it will be very easy for most people to do the strategy that we are planning to do, unless we have a very big surprise tomorrow.

"From us, for the long runs, there is quite a lot of wear on the fronts. It is not so much the degradation but the wear on the front. It is quite a lot.

"You put a lot of load on the front tyres, so it will be interesting tomorrow to see how it improves."

Perez was confident that he would have been able to get through to Q3 if he had not lost time in backing off for the yellow flags that were out for Daniel Ricciardo's stranded Toro Rosso.

"It was going to be quite a lot better," Perez said. "Today Q3 was quite possible, and without all the yellow flags I could easily have been in Q3.

"It is a shame we could not make it today but on the other hand we are free to choose our tyre for tomorrow."