Sunday: Pérez skirts disaster behind the wheel of a high-performing Force India
With an alternative one-stop strategy, the Indian team narrowly misses the podium. Involved in a major accident, Sergio Pérez ultimately escapes unscathed, reassuring his team. As for Nico Hülkenberg, he continues his point-scoring streak, finishing 5th.
Sergio Pérez (No. 11) – 11th
While he was on the podium at the approach of the last lap thanks to a successful one-stop strategy, the Mexican made a dangerous maneuver by changing trajectory when Felipe Massa was trying to overtake him, causing a very spectacular accident. The FIA decided to impose a five-place grid penalty for Austria on him.
He explains: « On the last lap, I was defending my position going into turn 1 when I was suddenly hit from behind. It was a big impact but I’m okay. I’m really sad for the team because we had an incredible race today and the one-stop strategy worked perfectly. »
Before that, the goal was victory but a technical problem prevented it: « It wasn’t easy during the last laps. I was pushing hard to try and get ahead of Nico Rosberg for the win. Daniel managed to get ahead of me when I had an electrical problem with my car. I was able to restart the system for the last laps. The podium was possible today, and I’m very disappointed with the points lost today. »
Nico Hülkenberg (No. 27) – 5th
After a hard-fought race, the German driver is pleased to finish in a fifth place that was not assured from the start. He tells us about his race: « The safety car at the beginning didn’t help me, allowing those on super-soft tires to extend their stints. Being on a different strategy than everyone else, I always had someone pushing hard right behind me: it was fun but also difficult, especially towards the end of the race where I had to do a quite long stint on super-softs. »
