Last week out at Singapore, Mexican Sergio Perez showed us his strength again. A brave and impressive drive saw Perez grab a seventh place finish.
“It’s a good feeling to end such a demanding race with seventh place and six points. The start was very important because I knew I had to get ahead of Fernando [Alonso] and I also jumped ahead of Romain [Grosjean].”
Perez was happy of his great performance in the race, and rightly so.
The Mexican qualified thirteenth in the extreme conditions of Singapore. His climb to seventh was an achievement. Singapore is a street circuit where there are plenty of overtaking opportunities, this allowed Perez to delve further into the field.
Perez was hoping to repeat this gesture in Japan. Perez reached qualifying three but failed to put in a time, along with Russian Daniil Kvyat who crashed out.
The Mexican started ninth on the grid at Suzuka, but the start was poor. On the first corner, Perez made contact with cars around him after getting sandwiched. He went hurtling into the gravel and rejoined the pack last.
It was to be a hard job for Perez to get further into the field, but thanks to incidents involving Ricciardo, Nasr and Massa the ex-Sauber and McLaren driver managed to gain some more positions.
Perez spent the rest of the race trying to gain positions and finished the Japanese Grand Prix in twelfth.
‘Twelfth place is a very disappointing outcome for a weekend that had started really well. Unfortunately, my race was an uphill battle from the first corner’. This quote perfectly reflects Perez’s race.
He’ll be sure to improve next time out in Sochi, Russia.
Perez has moved down to tenth in the World Championship, one point in front of team-mate Hulkenberg.
