Sergio Perez, Racing Point, Sochi Autodrom, 2019

Perez says seventh was best available after “perfect” drive

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In the round-up: Sergio Perez says he drove a “perfect” race at Sochi.

What they say

Perez started 11th and made his way forwards to finish behind seventh.

Fantastic race. I think one of my best races that I can remember. Just perfect, everything. The start, when to push, when not to strategy-wise.

Probably we were a bit unlucky with the Safety Car timing and we lost there but we managed to recover. And especially to hold on to the people with fresher rubber that was key. We just took every single opportunity and we worked hard for it. So we couldn’t do any better today.

Quotes: Dieter Rencken

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Comment of the day

Mattia Binotto’s claim Ferrari did not delay Sebastian Vettel’s pit stop to get Charles Leclerc ahead of him was met with a lot of scepticism:

What a joke, like anyone is gonna believe that.

Actually its even worse if they didn’t do it for that reason because then it shows how incompetent they are.
Valinor

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25 comments on “Perez says seventh was best available after “perfect” drive”

  1. The problem with cotd is that Binotto’s claim makes sense. I would have let Seb out as long as possible, as you do in the lead, lec undercut made sure merc wouldnt get track position and vet pace dependant could have gotten a pitstop on bottas. it wouldn’t be close on pit out but it would be better as vet had a good chance of still holding track position over the mercs.
    effectively singapore again, the car in front gets a worse strategy.

    1. @peartree Indeed. If anything, they went too short. If Vettel had been able to stay out for two more laps, they would have had a SC and Vettel would have easily won the race.

  2. Was it my eyes or does the racing point pitch up as it gets faster also perez was really poor in the end of the straight during the race. the racing point used to have an rb style rake, not anymore.

  3. I don’t really agree with Antonio Felix Da Costa. It’s all too easy just to try and blame the tarmac run-off area for a crash like this. Let’s not forget that tarmac slows the cars down significantly more efficiently than gravel or grass do. Gravel also has the potential to flip a car around as happened with Alonso in Australia back in 2016 or with Nick Heidfeld in Indianapolis in 2006.

    1. I don’t think that’s true in that tarmac is more effective overall at slowing a car down. In a straight line, yes, Michael Schumacher almost certainly wouldn’t have broken his legs at Silverstone if there was tarmac at Stowe corner, but when a car is spinning, then the car just skids like a sledge, and in the wet, it’s even worse.

      One particular example that springs to mind was Michael Schumacher’s qualifying crash at Spa in 2011 when he lost a wheel on the approach to Rivage. The car just kept skidding and didn’t slow down at all right up until the gravel trap, which actually prevented the car from hitting the barriers a second time. Nurburgring 2007 also comes to mind when driver after driver went off at turn 1. This year at Hockenheim, the drag strip was causing all sorts of chaos.

      The biggest side effect of tarmac run offs is that drivers are taking more and more risks and the result is that we have seen some really alarming accidents because some drivers are taking a few liberties.

      1. @brickles ”I don’t think that’s true in that tarmac is more effective overall at slowing a car down.”
        – According to the now-late Charlie Whiting, tarmac/asphalt slows cars down almost twice as quickly as gravel does.

    2. @jerejj you don’t have to agree, gravel is safer, it is a fact, tarmac is more practical. The fia doesn’t allow tarmac on some runnoffs because they are too short for tarmac or the barrier is a traditional tyre stack.

      1. @peartree Gravel is not safer. Gravel is actually dangerous with side ways slides, because it will flip the cars.

        Besides that, it might help slow down the cars faster when the track is wet, but in all other conditions tarmac is better for slowing down the cars.

        1. @f1osaurus Better flip the car that not deccelarate at all. Let’s agree to disagree.

          1. @peartree Well if you insist on disagreeing with the governing body on placing gravel or tarmac, then by all means.

            Not sure what the point is though. Why do you feel to insist that you know better than the people who actually know about this stuff?

          2. @f1osaurus …I just told you what the fia mandates, you’re the one that thinks the fia is wrong to use gravel. You crashed 180° on this thread.

          3. @peartree Yes the FIA mandates gravel where there is gravel and tarmac where there is tarmac. And then you claim the got it wrong.

            Besides you come with broad statements which make no sense.

            Sure agree to disagree all you want, but again what’s the point of blurting out nonsense and then simply say that you “disagree”

            I think 3 is an even number. Agree to disagree ok?

        2. @f1osaurus again? Read before replying.
          Why agree to disagree? You either didn’t comprehend the previous comment or didn’t read it, so I thought it was better to stop reasoning as there is no point in it. I stopped, you didn’t.
          Shall I surmise, the fia mandates “x” runoff and what type for “y” corner, you know that I know that. Race promoters like to use as much tarmac as possible for practical reasons, it’s been said everywhere. If tarmac was that safe why aren’t all runoffs like Paul Ricard? Not enough space, and as soon as a car loses a wheel or bottoms out it is ver going to stop on tarmac, wurz almost died in testing at paul ricard.

  4. COTD is on target. Ferrari are either incompetent or lying. Either way Mercedes are eating them up for breakfast even after they had 1-2 in the bag.

    1. @jureo COTD is wrong. Vettel’s lap times were stable. Better to stay out. There could have been an SC. In fact Vettel was very close to Russel’s SC.

      1. Then Ferrari are just incompetent. Vettel tried to force pitstop because he knew he was being undercut, he complained of rears going off, to trigger a pitstop.

        Atleast we can see Vettel is competent when it comes to his radio skills.

  5. You might not like this, but why not allow team orders during safety car periods? Just a random thought I had during the Singapore GP.

    1. @carbon_fibre Well, since team orders are allowed as a whole, they are also permitted during SC (and VSC) periods.

      1. @jerejj What do you mean? Car’s are not allowed to swap places behind the SC.

        1. @f1osaurus Yes, of course, but team orders via team radio are, but if done then they have to wait till green-flag conditions before actually pulling out a swap.

          1. @jerejj What’s the point of that?

            The idea @carbon_fibre poses is to allow position swaps behind the SC. Which would make it much safer to swap cars. Don’t think it’s good idea, but still.

  6. Perez again hitting over his weight.
    Congratulations to Perez.
    You only need one car with which you can fight every week.

    1. @luis Is he though? At best you can say that he’s better than Stroll, but that sets the bar incredibly low.

      1. I did not say that it was better than Stroll, which by the way it is, what I said is that Pérez hit above his weight, as he has done many times before, and on this occasion he did it again, he surpassed cars that are better than the one Sergio drives.
        …and that bar is taller than you are imagining.

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