Sergio Perez felt the seventh place finish he achieved during Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix was the best his Sahara Force India team could have hoped for on a track that usually does not play to the team’s strengths.
The Mexican held off the challenge of Williams Martini Racing’s Felipe Massa over the closing laps at the Circuit de Catalunya, but admitted the rest of his race was a pretty lonely affair, which he believes helped him in his defence against Massa.
“It was a very good race and I think we managed to get the maximum result we could hope to achieve today,” reflected Perez. “We were able to keep some very fast cars behind us and we capitalised on the accident on the first lap [between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg] to bring home a good amount of points.
“I had to fend off Felipe [Massa] in the last three laps: I was on very old tyres and he was closing in on me, but I managed to defend my position. This was pretty much the only action I had all afternoon; the rest of my race was quite lonely, which helped me look after the tyres and allowed me to defend in the final few laps.
“We had a good strategy that helped us leapfrog the Haas and brought us this good result on a track that has never been our strongest.”
