Sergio Perez has admitted his eighth place finish in the Italian Grand Prix was the ‘maximum result’ during what developed into a tricky weekend for Force India.
Having overhauled Williams’ advantage in recent races – stealing fourth in the Constructors’ table in Belgium – Force India looked to cement their newly attained position in the standings this weekend.
Despite the venue bearing the hallmarks of a circuit that would favour the team, both Perez and teammate Nico Hulkenberg faced an uphill struggle after a challenging Friday.
Starting eighth and ninth, the duo completed a two-stop strategy on their way to a combined total of five points. Perez finished eighth, while Hulkenberg ended the weekend in tenth.
Despite being outscored by Williams and dropping back to fifth in the standings, Perez has highlighted that his team’s modest return was, unfortunately, the best possible result.
“I think we got the maximum result we could hope for because we didn’t have the pace to achieve more,” the Mexican stated. “We tried an aggressive strategy, with a very early second stop, to try and cover Verstappen, but it turned out to be too early and in the end, we had a lot of pressure from Massa.
“It was very important to keep in front of him and bring home as many points as we possibly could. We always knew it would be a challenging race and it’s shown that we need to keep working hard.”
Force India will hope to return to form in Singapore. Having scored podium finishes at Monaco and Baku earlier in the season, Perez will hope that his string of street circuit successes can continue.
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