PEREZ ADMITTED NOW LOOKS LIKE A “PAINFUL” MISTAKE

Racing Point looked like a loser pre-race – if you’re third in the constructors’ championship you simply shouldn’t be 11th and 15th on the grid.

Then Lance Stroll rapidly put himself down to last by clipping Esteban Ocon’s Renault and breaking his front wing. Skittling a pitcrew member by coming in too fast later on wasn’t ideal either.

But all of that should’ve been erased by a brilliant against-the-odds podium finish for Sergio Perez, whose mega first stint combined with his main rivals being caught up in traffic turned an initial 12th place into a fourth place that Verstappen’s shunt was going to turn into third.

Had Racing Point not brought him in for a pitstop that Perez admitted now looks like a “painful” mistake. Third became sixth as a consequence, and Renault and McLaren have demoted Racing Point to fifth in the points too.

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.

“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.”

PEREZ ADMITTED NOW LOOKS LIKE A “PAINFUL” MISTAKE PEREZ ADMITTED NOW LOOKS LIKE A “PAINFUL” MISTAKE

THE WRITING WAS ALREADY ON THE WALL FOR ALBON – PEREZ AND HULKENBERG ONLY CANDIDATES

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