Sergio Perez sends clear message to rival drivers in ‘intense’ Fernando Alonso battle

Sergio Perez says rival Formula 1 drivers should take note and follow after his intense, but “very fair” battle with Fernando Alonso in Brazil.

Perez had plenty of ground to make up at Interlagos from P9 on the grid, but at the wheel of the fastest challenger out there, the Red Bull RB19, a podium finish remained very much possible.

And Perez would have secured a top-three finish, if it were not for the expert race craft of Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso.

Sergio Perez tells drivers to learn from Fernando Alonso battle

Perez would work his way up the order and chased after Alonso in the closing laps, the Aston Martin driver the final obstacle remaining between a return to the podium.

But, while Perez thought he had got the job done, Alonso had other ideas, forcing Perez to go defensive into Turn 4 and swooping around the outside, a contest which rolled on to a photo finish at the line.

And by just five-hundredths of a second, it was Alonso who won out and took to the podium for the first time since the Dutch Grand Prix.

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Perez spoke very highly indeed of that battle with Alonso, so much so that he feels rival F1 drivers ought to be taking notes from a tussle which showed how it should be done.

“It was quite an intense battle,” Perez told Sky F1. “We tried everything. Unfortunately, we didn’t succeed on that.

“But it was well deserved for Fernando. I think we had a great fight, very fair, to the limit and this is something that a lot of drivers can learn from, because what we did, the way we fight today, I think it’s something that is how it should be done.

“I’m in the wrong side, I end up losing, but it’s fine you know, because it was a great fight.”

While Perez’s streak of grands prix without a podium now reaches six, it was nonetheless a pivotal weekend for the struggling Red Bull driver as he delivered a performance much closer to that expected of him.

Perez felt this level had been in him before the Brazilian GP though, it was just here he was able to translate that into a result.

“We’ve seen in the last couple of races that the pace has been there, that we’ve been really strong and for some reason or another, we haven’t been able to get the final end result,” he said.

“But I just know that it’s a matter of time.”

Perez has now put himself in a commanding position to claim P2 in the Drivers’ Championship and give Red Bull their first ever one-two finish, his gap over Lewis Hamilton 32 points with two rounds remaining.

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