Sergio Perez climbed from eighteenth on the grid to finish an excellent seventh in the Bahrain Grand Prix, continuing his Sahara Force India F1 Team’s impressive scoring run in the process.
After a lacklustre display in qualifying, the Mexican was out of position on the grid but drove extremely well to move into the points, gaining five places on the opening lap, before getting lucky with the timing of the safety car.
“I’m very proud of my team today,” said Perez. “To finish seventh after starting from P18 is an amazing recovery and we can be very happy tonight. It’s also our thirteenth consecutive race in the points, which is an incredible achievement.
“The first lap was very important for my race because I made up five places and was up in P13 by the end of lap one. I had great tyre life in the first stint; we stayed out as long as we could and the safety car played into our hands just when I needed to make a pit stop.”
Perez believes the Silverstone-based team performed ‘a perfect race’ at the Bahrain International Circuit, and although there is still performance to be found with the VJM10, it was still a great feeling to have such a strong race.
“I think we made the most of every opportunity and the whole team – the engineers and the mechanics – played their part in executing a perfect race,” said Perez. “We showed, once again, that we never give up on Sundays and we can come back strong after a difficult qualifying.
“We know there are still areas where we can improve and that there is more speed to come from this car, but for now it feels good to have both cars in the points for the third race this season.”
