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Perez expecting home support in US Grand Prix

Sergio Perez expecting home support at the US GP © Sutton Images

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• Race:
• United States Grand Prix

• Drivers:
• Sergio Perez

• Teams:
• Alfa Romeo

Sergio Perez is counting on home support from Mexican fans to deliver a strong result for Sauber at next weekend's US Grand Prix.

The Texan circuit's close location to Mexico has led many Mexican supporters, along with Perez, to describe the Austin venue as their home race.

"I am aware of the great enthusiasm for F1 in my country, so I hope there will be a Mexican Grand Prix one day", Perez said. "But for now, I regard the race in Austin as my home race." "I am very much looking forward to it! I think it is the closest race for eight years for me to my home town of Guadalajara", said the Mexican. "I expect many Mexican Formula One fans to attend and this will give me an extra boost."

Whilst Sauber expect to see more on track activity in first practice 1 as drivers adapt to the new track, Perez thinks he will have no problems learning its layout.

"I have no issues about learning new tracks quickly. In my first Formula One season, which was only last year, I had many tracks to learn."

"I am sure we will have a good crowd there and I definitely want to put in a strong result for both the Sauber F1 Team and myself."

Sauber's Head of Track Engineering, Giampaolo Dall'Ara, said that Sauber has a baseline set up for the weekend, but expects the track surface to be an unknown factor.

"A rather unknown factor is how abrasive the tarmac will be. In this regard we rely on Pirelli and the tyre allocation they decided to go for, which is the medium and hard compounds."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.