Sergio Perez credited his team’s strategy of starting him on the hard compound tyres for making his way from ninth to third in the Hungarian Grand Prix.
The Red Bull driver climbed took the final podium position from Oscar Piastri on lap 52 of 70. He was the only driver in the top ten on the grid to start on hard tyres, running the longest opening stint of any driver with 23 laps.Perez had begun to catch second-placed Lando Norris in the closing stages, but fell back from the McLaren after catching backmarkers, eventually settling for third by the finish.
“We got close to P2,” said Perez. “Unfortunately we had to go through a lot of backmarkers.”
Making progress was difficult due to the lack of grip in places, said Perez. “The track was unbelievably dirty off-line, so in the last laps I got some pick-up going through the backmarkers and that meant that I lost a few seconds.
“Then I recovered towards the end, but it was too late. But overall I think it was a great strategy by the team and we managed to have an excellent result.”
“I think this sort of performance, these sorts of days, do help,” he said. “And from now on, I just look forward to basically being on the podium every single weekend. So let’s keep it up.”
Perez’s battle with Piastri in the later laps saw the McLaren driver run off the track at the exit of turn two. The stewards noted the incident but decided that no further investigation was necessary.
“We were on very similar age tyres,” Perez explained. “Basically we pitted on the same lap, so we were on fresh tyres. I went for it around the outside, we touched into turn one and into turn two we touched again. So it was a little bit close, but hard racing all the same.”
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
2023 Hungarian Grand Prix
- Was F1’s Alternative Tyre Allocation test successful? Drivers and teams have their say
- How far can McLaren climb with car rivals now say is the second-fastest in F1?
- Why Ricciardo says McLaren’s car “speaks Lando’s language” – but Norris disagrees
- Mercedes reveal cooling error behind loss of pace in Hungarian GP
- Perez answered critics in Hungary but needs to qualify better – Horner
Homerlovesbeer (@homerlovesbeer)
23rd July 2023, 16:20
Dream on Perez…. Dream on
DaveW (@dmw)
23rd July 2023, 16:30
Man started ninth and finished half a lap behind same car. Ricciardo outqualified and beat his teammate after getting punted to last on lap one. He better be targeting wins, not following a McLaren home.
drmouse (@drmouse)
23rd July 2023, 16:37
He has the car to take at least second every race. Targeting a podium for every race shows his lack of confidence, to me.
Alex (@)
23rd July 2023, 16:53
It was fun to see Perez cut through the field, and I hope it’s helped his confidence to reach the podium, but he still took the comfortably-fastest car from 9th to 3rd, while Russell went from 18th to 6th, without being able to match the best times from McClaren or Mercedes… while his team-mate got fastest lap by a clear second.
I hope this is a stepping stone to Perez performing like he did last year and at the start of this one. It doesn’t yet look like ‘mission accomplished’: his sights should be higher than 3rd place.
David BR (@david-br)
23rd July 2023, 18:35
OK, but one race doesn’t constitute a pattern; five qualifying sessions in a row not reaching Q3 does – and qualifying finally in 9th this weekend isn’t really any kind of radical turnaround.
GmP (@gmp)
23rd July 2023, 21:38
Maybe because an English is my second language, but I do not understand the headline.
This is what Perez was saying, as quoted in the article:
“I think this sort of performance, these sorts of days, do help,” he said. “And from now on, I just look forward to basically being on the podium every single weekend. So let’s keep it up.”
That is in my book not the same as:
“Perez expects to “be on the podium every weekend” after recovering third place”
He looks forward to it, if he can keep it up. I don’t see any statement that he expects it will happen.
This is the same mangling of statements when Max was asked if he could win every race. Yes, he could, and would like it, but made clear that it likely not would happen. Which a lot of publications, and even more commenters conveniently left out.
Bad headlines, purely written to solicit negative comments.
MacLeod (@macleod)
23rd July 2023, 22:13
Next weekend is Spa and weather sayd rain and cold that means Perez is going to strugglw….
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
24th July 2023, 7:52
I’m going to take any “it’s gonna rain comments” not with a grain of salt, with a bucket of salt, after how many times I’ve heard it’s gonna rain, and then not a droplet, including the silverstone joke, where the full wet conditions went to the minor formula race and not a droplet during f1 quali.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
24th July 2023, 7:54
Just saying, but perez expecting to be on the podium with a car that has 30 sec margin on the closest competitor is nothing but ordinary, he should aim to be 2nd 15 sec behind verstappen by the flag imo.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
24th July 2023, 7:56
I think perez expecting to be on the podium with a car that has 30 sec margin on the closest competitor is nothing but ordinary, he should aim to be 2nd 15 sec behind verstappen by the flag imo.
drmouse (@drmouse)
24th July 2023, 13:34
Agreed
Moshambles (@moshambles)
24th July 2023, 10:51
He should be second every weekend
Prashanth Ramadas
26th July 2023, 0:42
Ayrton Senna was a very good driver. So many documentaries to watch on the internet. I like the way he politically wanted to improve the sport. He had many rich influencing girlfriends also.