Comeback drive “one of my best races” – Perez

2016 Singapore Grand Prix

Posted on

| Written by

Sergio Perez was pleased with his result in the Singapore Grand Prix after climbing nine places to finish eighth.

Two long stint on soft tyres were key to Perez’s drive which secured valuable points for Force India after his team mate was eliminated on the first lap.

2016 Singapore Grand Prix in pictures
“I am so happy about tonight’s performance,” said Perez, “it surely ranks as one of the best races in my career.”

“To be able to do 36 laps on one set of soft tyres, in this heat, and to keep my position under pressure from [Daniil] Kvyat is a big achievement.”

Perez was very unhappy on Saturday evening after two penalties moved him towards the back of the grid. As he still had to start the race on used tyres the team took advantage of an early Safety Car period to bring him in early.

“Pitting on lap one put us behind [Esteban] Gutierrez and that impacted on our strategy: we lost a lot of time behind him and it was very hard on my tyres, which was not good for what was effectively a one-stop race. We knew stopping one time less than our rivals was the only way we could score points, so managing the tyres was crucial.”

“There was no point fighting with Fernando [Alonso] after his last stop: he was in a different race and I knew I couldn’t afford to destroy my tyres that early in the stint. It was the same with Max [Verstappen] – on a day like this I had to race intelligently and pick my fights to make the strategy work.”

“It’s a good result for the team and it puts us back in fourth place in the championship,” Perez added. The team has regained the place it lost to Williams at Monza.

2016 Singapore Grand Prix

    Browse all Singapore Grand Prix articles

    Author information

    Keith Collantine
    Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

    Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

    7 comments on “Comeback drive “one of my best races” – Perez”

    1. Could have been a better result had he not Been speeding under yellow flags in qualifying. Perez needs to do better.

      1. He has picked up two podiums in a car that frankly should not be there, has matured ten-fold from his McLaren days and is driving beautifully, and is more often than not beating his highly rated team mate, not to mention he is 20 points ahead in the championship. What exactly does he need to do better?

        1. Well said Cory.

        2. Well he could always be even faster… But for sure almost every race he gives us exciting midfield stuff.

      2. Fernando Deutsch
        19th September 2016, 3:39

        Actually he was not speeding under yellow flags. Telemetry shown he slowed down and lost time on that sector. Main problem was Gutierrez slowed much more and Perez passed him, that was the first infraction, and second I think marshalls expected him to slow more. You should be the one to do better by research first before posting comments like this.

    2. Fernando Deutsch
      19th September 2016, 3:42

      Another great comback from Perez. Too bad he lost too much time behind Gutierrez, still a good result for the team to place them back in 4th place.

      He lost a place against a dive bomb from Kvyat but was able to recover the position in a very good manouver after fighting with Verstappen too.

    Comments are closed.