Perez backs Racing Point’s split strategy

Michelle Foster
Sergio-Perez-PA

Sergio Perez says he has no gripe with his team after SportPesa Racing Point split strategies in Canada, resulting in points for Lance Stroll and a P12 for Perez.

Although Perez began the Canadian Grand Prix two places ahead of Stroll, at the end of the 70-lap race he was three positions behind his team-mate and outside of the points.

While Stroll started on the hard Pirellis and ran 45 laps before pitting for medium tyres, Perez started on the mediums and had to pit on lap 11 for hard tyres that he kept to the end of the race.

He finished 12th at the chequered flag.

“It was a very frustrating afternoon,” Perez explained to Autosport.

“Early on [Daniil] Kvyat was struggling ahead of me, and I only had two laps before I had to look after my brake temperatures.

“As a team we maximised what we could from where we started, to be able to get a car in the points is good for the team, but personally it was a bad day.

“It’s always after the race you know which is the right strategy.

“We had to take some gambles and it paid off for Lance and the team, so we can be happy to get those two points.

“But other than that we have to improve to be further up the grid.”

Asked how he felt about running a different strategy to Stroll, the one that was least effective, Perez insisted he had no issue with the call.

“We spoke and we thought the best was splitting the cars before the race,” he said. “We didn’t see an advantage for them so it was more of a gamble.”

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