Sergio Perez Finishes 2nd on the Podium

It is a good day for us and the Team after such a messy weekend for us. Physically I wasn’t one hundred percent this week and after lap one I was last, so to come away with second place is a great result. I was so unlucky on the first lap making contact with Charles, I broke my front wing and had to drop to the back. So we had to fight for it and it feels good to have a result like this. I am also very happy for Carlos and to share his first win with him is a nice moment for him and his family. I enjoyed the racing today a lot, we were fighting hard and fair and it felt like my karting days. Everyone was pushing really hard and going wheel to wheel, my heartrate was pretty high on those last laps. It was a race where it was important not to give up.

Seventh place is a good result considering the damage I had on the car and with Checo on the podium, we’ve scored some good points for the Team. I of course had hoped for more but today was just unlucky. I had a look at the car during the red flag and the whole of the underneath on the left-hand side was ruptured. I hit a huge piece of debris; I think it was carbon. As I was driving it felt like a puncture as I had no balance and a lot of oversteer. The car was a handful to drive, I tried to find a good aero balance but it was difficult. I understand that Alex is having precautionary checks at the hospital, so I hope that he’s okay. It’s never nice to see these things and today proved once again that the halo is a massive improvement for safety, I think without it Zhou would have been in a different state.

It’s been a difficult day. The collision I had at the start of the race was completely unavoidable, a car came in front of me sideways and there was nothing I could do. Luckily, I only damaged my front wing and was able to get back to the pits with the red flag and continue to race with the restart. Unfortunately, I then had contact with Pierre later on. I need to review it properly but at the moment, I think I could’ve waited for another opportunity to pass him. My speed was good going into the corner so I thought I could make it through, I also didn’t expect Pierre to close the door quite as much as he did, so this is a mistake from my side. Mainly, I just want to say sorry to the team. After that, I had damage to the car, it was very tricky to drive and that made the rest of the race very difficult for me.

From a difficult weekend we actually made it quite a bit better with Qualifying, then after the race restart today I was running in seventh, we were in a great position. Following the incident with Yuki I had damage to the rear wing, so we had to retire the car. Every point is valuable, especially in a season like this, so I’m disappointed with the end result today, as it was an unnecessary collision. The accident with Zhou was really scary at the start of the race, it was shocking to see him upside down but I’m glad to hear he’s ok, that’s the most important thing.