Sergio Perez criticises "painful" call that cost Racing Point Imola podium

Emilia Romagna Grand Prix

Perez criticises "painful" call that cost Racing Point podium

Perez was third when he was called into the pits and eventually finished sixth

Ewan Gale

Sunday 1 November 2020 17:34 Updated: 17:48

Racing Point driver Sergio Perez believes the call to pit during the late safety car period in a "painful" Emilia Romagna Grand Prix "didn't make sense" after seeing a podium thrown away.

Perez was third with 12 laps remaining after Max Verstappen's suspected tyre failure at the Villeneuve chicane triggered a safety car, a period prolonged by George Russell's incident at Acque Minerali.

But instead of keeping position on an Imola track on which it had proven almost impossible to overtake, the Mexican was called in for a tyre change, eventually finishing sixth.

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"I don't know [what happened]," he said when asked to reflect on the situation. "Looking at it, it didn't make sense at the time.

"The call was very late but it is always very easy to make the right decision after the race. Overtaking today was extremely difficult. I haven't spoken to the team yet. They must have some reasons.

"It is a painful day because we had the podium in the pocket. It is just hard to digest. They are as disappointed as I am right now. We are a team, we lose and also win together, so in hindsight it was the wrong call today."

Perez, however, refused to dwell solely on the end of the race, pointing to the job he and his team had done to promote themselves from 11th to third.

"From all of the negatives, we can take the positives," he explained. "That first stint was tremendous.

"Great strategy, great calls from the team. We put ourselves in a position to get that podium but it is a painful day, a painful day in the championship. Our competition, we basically gave the podium to [Daniel] Ricciardo."

On whether his blistering form is helping him secure a seat for 2021, Perez said: "I think we will see. As I always say, until you have something signed, everything is in the air so we will see what happens in the coming weeks."

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