Force India have accepted that they were at fault for Sergio Perez’s slow second pitstop which cost the team valuable points in the race for fourth in the Constructors’ Championship.

Perez came home 11th at the Hungaroring and had been running ahead of teammate Nico Hulkenberg before his second stop. The Mexican would have been in contention to fight Williams’ Valtteri Bottas for ninth place had the stop gone to plan.

Deputy team principal Bob Fernley confirmed there was no message sent to the pitcrew.

“It was a miscommunication on the pitwall,” Fernley said.

“It was our fault, nothing to do with him. We made a mistake.

“We missed a call on the pitwall picking it up in the procedures.”

Perez was confident of scoring points after a strong first stint had pushed him up the order.

“The first stint was very strong; we were on plan to complete it and then we went on to mediums,” he said.

“But they were sliding around and I couldn’t manage it well to make them work, so we decided we had a nice window to stop.

“They called me in, but when I stopped there were no tyres so we lost a lot of time.

“It’s annoying, but it can happen sometimes. We’ve seen it in the past.

“Probably more than ninth place was available for us, but it’s how it is sometimes.”