Sergio Perez started the Australian Grand Prix weekend insisting he was ready to fight for the Formula 1 world championship and Red Bull was now ready to give him “every single opportunity” to challenge for it.

The timing made sense. Perez has just come off the back of securing his fourth win for Red Bull in Jeddah, a victory that was probably his most convincing in Red Bull colours as he capitalised on starting 14 places ahead of team-mate Max Verstappen and calmly maintained a small gap to Verstappen once he’d moved into second place.

Eyebrows were raised at Perez’s declaration on Thursday in Melbourne and doubters were somewhat validated by Perez’s nightmare Saturday.

Multiple offs in final practice – where setting a representative laptime proved a struggle – perhaps inevitably translated into a crash just five minutes into the first segment of qualifying.