Sergio Pérez lost to Lando Norris in the fight for second place in China. According to the Mexican, he failed due to an inappropriately timed neutralization of the race.
Even though Sergio Pérez managed to qualify on the front row for this year’s Chinese GP, he eventually had to settle for “up to” third place at the finish line.
The Mexican first lost one position at the start, but that didn’t have to worry him too much, as he took second place back soon.
A bigger problem for Pérez was the later activation of the virtual safety car and the subsequent departure of the real speed car. The neutralization occurred when the Red Bull driver had already completed his first pit stop, while Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc had not yet, so these two drivers got a “free stop” against the Mexican and got ahead of him.
Pérez subsequently managed to get ahead of Leclerc, but was no longer enough for Norris.
“At that point (after passing Leclerc, ed.) my gap was already quite big and given how good his pace was in the first stint in terms of tire degradation, I knew it was going to be difficult,” said Perez, whose words are quoted by Autosport.
“We basically had the same tempo. After the fight with Charles, everything is over for me,” said the Mexican driver, saying that the battle with the Ferrari driver had significantly worn down his tires.
“It’s a circuit with relatively high (tyre) degradation and I paid for it,” lamented Pérez, who was supported by his Red Bull boss Christian Horner.
“The safety car left at the wrong time. He fell behind Lando and Charles and I think he had to work hard to pass him. He probably put too much pressure on the tires at that moment, which he subsequently missed. I think that without the exit of the safety car, we would have had a double,” Horner evaluated Pérez’s race.
