Force India’s plan to run Sergio Perez on a one-stop strategy backfired when the Safety Car came out.
Perez believed he was set to gain places from two drivers he was within 18 seconds of by not pitting during the Safety Car period.
“The race today was probably one of the most difficult of my career because I was very unlucky with the timing of the Safety Car, which really didn’t help my one-stop strategy,” he said.
“We chose not to pit when it came out because we thought there was a chance to jump Nico [Hulkenberg] and Felipe [Massa], but in reality that didn’t happen.”
“Then the team told me that the cars behind had all pitted and fitted new tyres, so I was a bit worried because I knew the final 15 laps would be very difficult. To stay ahead of them and finish in eighth place is probably one of my best performances in Formula One and I’m very happy I could score points in front of my home crowd.”
2015 Mexican Grand Prix lap chart
The positions of each driver on every lap. Scroll to zoom, drag to pan, click name to highlight, right-click to reset:
2015 Mexican Grand Prix race chart
The gaps between each driver on every lap compared to the leader’s average lap time. Scroll to zoom, drag to pan, click name to highlight, right-click to reset:
2015 Mexican Grand Prix
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- Watching the Mexican GP at the Foro Sol
- 2015 Mexican Grand Prix team radio transcript
jCage
2nd November 2015, 0:43
Have to agree that was a great performance from him to not only hold off but pull away from the guys behind (did they actually all stop, though?). Hulk was obviously on a 2-stopper, but I was confused about how he managed to stay ahead of Perez even after pitting considering Perez was ahead before the stops by a decent margin.
Kaiser
2nd November 2015, 10:13
Nico pushed hard after the first stop to stay ahead of the 2-stoppers, and managed that. I agree Perez’ performance was impressive given how old his tyres were after the SC.
Sander (@)
2nd November 2015, 12:55
In all fairness Verstappen had cooling issues and was told to ease off and bring home the car to secure points.
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
2nd November 2015, 1:40
The one stop ruined the race. In spite of the Ferrari debacle the race was looking good, until the SC.
Illusive (@illusive)
2nd November 2015, 8:44
Yeah the Williams were struggling, Riccardo was all over the back of Massa, it’d have been interesting race until the safety car.
Mike Dee (@mike-dee)
2nd November 2015, 8:54
The race average chart embarrassing for Manor…
hahostolze (@hahostolze)
2nd November 2015, 9:02
SC totally ruined the climax with the Williams, Hulkenburg and Kvyat probably all having to come in, whereas Perez, Verstappen, Sainz and Ricciardo would not have. Such a waste that was, their race was ruined and the Williams got lucky. Rub of the asphaly, I suppose.
sato113 (@sato113)
2nd November 2015, 11:11
I know it’s been said before, but can we please have the ability to select/unselect drivers in these charts. Some of them just look like a mess of colours, even when you ‘highlight’ a driver.