Sergio Pérez concluded the Las Vegas Formula 1 Grand Prix in third position, securing the vice-world champion title. After sustaining damage following an incident in the first corner, having to make an unexpected pit stop on the opening lap, the Red Bull driver made an impressive recovery and even took the lead, but couldn’t match the pace of his teammate Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc (Ferrari).
In a press conference, the Mexican driver commented on his feelings about this outcome, starting by explaining the damage he had to avoid in the beginning: ‘It’s a bit of a mixed feeling because if you only look at the big picture, I think it’s very tough. I seemed to be completely out of the race, with so much damage in the first lap, basically with damage to the front wing. Everyone stopped on the outside, there was no grip in that first lap. And unfortunately, my first goal was just to avoid any damage because I knew how low grip conditions were going to be. And I ended up with that damage, unfortunately’.
If in the first phase Pérez only aimed to surpass his rival in the fight for second place in the championship, the pace with the hard tires and the safety car put him in contention for the win, as he stated: ‘From there on, it was all about recovering, trying to catch Lewis [Hamilton] first because the goal was to secure second place in the championship today. But the pace with those hard tires was tremendous and that really put me back in the race. I was just overtaking cars every lap and we were really strong. And that put us back in the race. And when the safety car came out, that really put us in the fight for the win’.
About the battle with Leclerc, first for the lead and then for second place, #11 said: ‘In the first few laps, I overtook Charles relatively easily, but then I just couldn’t get away from him. And unfortunately, I think we trimmed the rear wing a little too much on my car and my top speed was a bit low. So when I was in the lead, I just couldn’t get away from Charles. And then we also had Max in the fight. So overall, I think it was a good recovery. It wasn’t nice to lose a place to Charles in the end. He responded to me in the 2020 Turkish GP. Yeah, that’s what it is’.
