Sergio Perez worried his tyres would "explode" en route to Turkey podium

Turkish Grand Prix

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Perez worried his tyres would "explode" en route to Turkey podium

Perez fought brilliantly to clinch his first podium of the season

Ewan Gale

Sunday 15 November 2020 14:01

Racing Point driver Sergio Perez said he was concerned about his tyres "exploding" in the dying stages of the Turkish Grand Prix after battling to a sublime second-place finish.

Perez first fended off a challenge from Max Verstappen before forcing Charles Leclerc into a mistake on the final lap of the race to take his first podium of the season.

The Mexican switched from wet tyres to intermediates on lap-ten and once again showcased his incredible tyre management skills to complete 48 laps and reach the end of the race on the compound.

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By the end Perez was lapping on bald rubber and admitted to having concerns the tyres would explode due to the "extremely bad" vibrations going through the construction.

"I told my team on the radio that one more lap on those tyres and I think they would have exploded," he said.

"The vibrations were extremely bad towards the end. I think it also made our race because looking after them at the beginning and towards the end in drying conditions, I think the team did a fantastic job in terms of strategy during the race.

"I think Lewis was extremely strong and towards the end, we died but we managed to get a good result."

On his battles with Verstappen and Leclerc, Perez said: "With Max, I couldn't see anything in my mirrors, my mirrors were full of fog.

"So my engineers were telling me the gaps and so on. Then, all of a sudden, I saw Max running wide and he disappeared. The other one was with Charles, I wasn't aware he was so close to me so, in the final lap, it was a pretty good battle with him.

"He overtook me into turn nine and then I overtook him back into 11 so it was a chaotic race but a strong result for us."

Without a drive for 2021, Perez acknowledged his future remains out of his hands, saying, "I think as always, you have to deliver weekend after weekend.

"You are only as good as your last race so it is important to finish on a high and the rest is not in my hands."

Before you go...

Seventh title heaven for Hamilton after another stunning wet-weather masterclass