Can GP – Race weekend recap - Perez

Sauber’s Sergio Perez picked up his second podium finish of the season in Canada with a well driven third place finish.

While the Sauber team have done well to break-out of the mid-pack teams on several occasions this weekend a podium finish never appeared to be on the cards this weekend.

In Free Practice Perez was consistent, but not spectacular finishing FP1 in 8th, FP2 in 11th and FP3 in 12th. The team would certainly have been looking and getting some good points on the board if qualifying went reasonably ok, which didn’t really happen for Perez who failed to make it through to Q3 and starting the race in 15th position.

Team-mate Kamui Kobayashi also went out in Q2 missing the cut off point by less than one hundredth of a second. Overall on Saturday evening, the Sauber team were probably a little bit disappointed and that was clear from Perez’s comments to formula1.com on Saturday evening: “Having qualified only 15th is a big disappointment for me, as certainly a place in the top ten would have been possible. Unfortunately on the first lap of my last run with new super soft tyres I flat spotted them when braking into turn 8. The car was then vibrating a lot, which meant I could hardly see the braking points. It is obviously a difficult position to start from, but it is still my target to score points tomorrow.”

Many would have thought a points paying position on the Sunday was a little bit too much to ask, but Perez slowly climbed through the field, showing that as always he is very capable of getting the best out of his tyres, something that eventually came back to bite Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso and Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel, who had attempted to switch to a one stop tyre strategy in an attempt to win the race, but with their tyres going off they were over taken by Lewis Hamilton who went on to win for McLaren Romain Grosjean who took second for Lotus and Perez who took third.

Speaking after the race Perez said: “When you start 15th and there is no rain or chaos you don’t really expect to finish on the podium. We were quite aggressive today. The strategy and the pit stop have been very good and I was able to overtake a few cars. I saw that for me the tyre degradation wasn’t so bad and this allowed me to manage my pace quite well. We have a quick car but since Malaysia we have been unlucky for one reason or another, and then yesterday we had such a disappointing qualifying. Today’s result is a great reward for all the guys who work hard. The last time I scored points I was also on the podium and think this is quite a nice way to do it. Also it is particularly sweet to have been at the podium ceremony here in Montreal because we are not too far from my home country and there are many Mexicans here. It is a great boost for the team and I am very pleased for everybody.”

The third place finish leaves Perez on 37 points, which places him 9th in the Formula One Drivers Championship, his 15 points also meant that Sauber overtook Williams in the constructors championship, with Sauber now sixth, behind Mercedes in fifth, Ferrari in fourth, Lotus third, McLaren second and Red Bull first.