Imola Grand Prix – Racing Point’s Sergio Perez says the team handed the final podium spot to Renault, when he pitted under the late Safety Car at Imola.
Sergio Perez looked set to secure another podium finish for Racing Point as he ran in third place after passing Daniel Ricciardo for the position with a long first stint after starting on the Mediums.
Having started in P11, it was a tremendous first 27 lap stint that elevated him into the podium place after Max Verstappen retired with a suspected puncture.
However, when the Safety Car was deployed to cover Verstappen’s recovery, Racing Point brought the Mexican driver to swap him to the Soft compound. This dropped him behind Ricciardo and Charles Leclerc, while Daniil Kvyat, who also pitted for Softs, also got ahead.
With the Safety Car period extended when George Russell crashed into the wall, Perez wasn’t able to use his fresher tyre advantage to gain back the places and had to settle for P6.
“I don’t know, I think, looking at it, it didn’t make sense at the time, you know, the call was very late, but it’s always easy to take the right decision after the race,” Perez told Sky F1.
“Overtaking today was extremely difficult. I haven’t spoken to the team yet. They must have some reasons on it.
“Just painful, painful day, because we had a podium in the pocket. It is just hard to digest. I think they are as disappointed as I am right now.
“We are a team and we lose and also win together. In hindsight, it was the wrong call today.”
After getting over the immediate disappointment, Perez said it was time to focus on the positives of the race: “We still put in a great performance to go from P11 and into P6 to score some really strong points. It was clear in the race that it was very tough to overtake and we still managed to improve with a tremendous first stint on the medium tyres – and it was a good decision to pit when we did [on lap 27] to gain three places. It was very close to being the perfect race for us today. We will keep pushing and we’re looking forward to returning to Turkey next time out.”
“But yeah, it is a painful day, you know. Also a painful day in the championship [against] our competition – we basically gave the podium to Ricciardo.”
The result means Renault hang onto P3 in the Constructor’s Championship, just a solitary point ahead of McLaren and Racing Point.
