Sergio Perez could have finished 7th
Sergio Perez had a very complicated weekend, due to his mistake during the Sprint Qualifying and a strategy from his team that destroyed his chances of scoring points.
It’s a zero score for Red Bull this weekend. The Austrian team didn’t score a single point because of the collision between Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton and a strategy that didn’t allow Sergio Perez to break into the Top 10.
The weekend had started badly for the Mexican as he was very far from his teammate during Friday’s qualifying session. On Saturday, during the Sprint Qualifying, things didn’t improve for the two-time Grand Prix winner, as he went off track and had to retire. His team took the opportunity to make numerous changes to his RB16B and therefore had to start from the pits.
Sunday, Perez’s start of the race is very good, he is climbing up his competitors one by one and even manages to rise to 8th place. On the 39th lap, he enters the pits to change his tires for the second time, before stopping for a third time to put on soft ones and snatch the best lap time from Hamilton.
According to the Mexican, this choice of his team is a strategic reason, he also thinks he could have finished in 7th place, as he had Stroll and Alonso in his sights.
« I think that with my mistake from yesterday, today we could have made much more progress and in the end, we could have finished 7th. I was saving my tires better than the others ahead.
But then, we took the fastest lap for strategic reasons. I think overall, it was a weekend we need to forget and aim to come back stronger.
Even though he achieved the fastest lap in the race, the Mexican did not receive the bonus point associated with it because he crossed the line outside the Top 10 (16th). In the standings, he sees Lando Norris and Valtteri Bottas ahead of him and now sits in 5th place in the driver’s championship.
