Sergio Perez climbs from 17th to 8th place in Singapore

Sergio Perez received a double penalty after the qualifying session for improving his time while the session was neutralized following Romain Grosjean’s crash. As a result, he had to start from 17th place despite qualifying in 9th position.

But he indirectly experienced the misadventures of his teammate, Nico Hülkenberg, who was propelled into the wall as soon as the lights went out. The German was therefore frustrated to be a victim of Max Verstappen’s poor start and the maneuvers of the Toro Rosso drivers: “It’s extremely disappointing to finish my race in the barriers after only 50 meters, especially since I had such a great start, probably the best of the year. I dove into the gap between the two Toro Rossos but it was obviously very tight. I had Daniil on my right, Carlos on my left, and Carlos touched my rear left, which sent me into the wall. I think all the avoiding actions led to the disappearance of the space in front of me.”

To clear the debris left by car number 27, the safety car entered the track. Sergio Perez then decided to pit immediately to take advantage of the situation, even though he ended up behind Esteban Gutierrez: *”Stopping on the first lap put me behind Gutierrez, and that impacted our strategy: we lost a lot of time behind him, and it was very hard on my tires, which was not good for our one-stop strategy. We knew that stopping one less time than our rivals was the only way to score points. So, managing the tires was crucial.”*

To go as far as possible, the Mexican has thus made the adage his own, namely that to go far, you must spare your mount. He therefore preferred not to put up resistance to certain drivers in order to defend himself at the end of the race: « It was useless to fight with Fernando after the last stop: he was in a different race, and I knew I couldn’t afford to destroy my tires so early in the stint. It was the same for Max. On a day like this, I had to race smart and choose my battles to make the strategy work. »

It worked since driver No. 11 was able to score four points for eighth place, allowing them to move just ahead of Williams. Sahara Force India thus regains fourth place in the Constructors’ Championship, which could be essential for the future of both the driver and the team.