Sergio Perez pointed to a poor start to his race leading to a less than satisfying British Grand Prix, in which he spent the entire race glued to the gearbox of Esteban Ocon in the sister Force India.
Perez was jumped by both his team-mate and Valtteri Bottas in the opening corners of the race, and failed to make any headway as the race progressed, eventually losing a further place to the resurgent Daniel Ricciardo before settling in for ninth place. The Mexican felt frustrated he was unable to effect any change on his position during the race, shouldering most of the blame on his own start.
“It’s been a difficult race and I have a feeling we didn’t get to demonstrate our true pace,” he said. “We should have finished higher, but in the end we still bring home points with both cars. I had a poor start and that compromised the rest of the afternoon, because I couldn’t recover from it.”
Perez also attributed his lack of progress to the characteristics of the circuit, unable to pass the identical sister car even with DRS down the Hangar Straight to help him attempt a move.
“Silverstone is one of the most difficult tracks on which to overtake, and even though I spent all my race within DRS range of Esteban, I never had a real opportunity to pass him. Being so close to the car in front damaged my tyres and cost me lots of downforce so there was nothing I could do.
“You can look back at the race and think of things that could have been done differently, but it’s always easy to say this after the race.”
Perez’s ninth place whilst Max Verstappen finished fourth dropped him back behind the Dutchman in the championship, down to seventh overall and five points adrift of the Red Bull driver.
