Force India returned to the podium as Sergio Perez battled his way to the third-place finish in the Azerbaijan Grand prix. The stewards of the event investigated him for an illegal DRS use. They pointed out that he used DRS twice out of the regulations but passed no cars and Perez kept his podium.
“I’m extremely happy. Our race was a rollercoaster. We started with an incident on the first lap when I was hit from behind by a Williams [Sergey Sirotkin]. That pushed me into Kimi [Raikkonen] and broke my front wing so I had to pit. I was at the back and then I was given a five seconds penalty. I was able to make my way through the field and when the Safety Car came out we managed to keep our position. The team did a great pit stop and I was able to serve my penalty and still come out in front of [Romain] Grosjean”, Perez explained.
“I was looking after my tyres because we only had SuperSofts left. And warming them up was very difficult. I was struggling and every corner was a lottery, but then I saw the cars in front of me were struggling too. I passed Seb [Vettel]. But then he recovered and put pressure on me. I had to give it everything in the last two laps: my pace was unbelievable and I think they were the best two laps of my life. This podium means a lot to me, I am very pleased and proud for myself, my family, my team and Mexico.”
Día histórico para el automovilismo MEXICANO: 8 PODIOS en F1!!! ?
??? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?? pic.twitter.com/TaWmnxa4kq— Sergio Pérez (@SChecoPerez) April 29, 2018
Force India returned to the podium as Sergio Perez battled his way to the third-place finish in the entertaining Azerbaijan Grand Prix
Esteban Ocon was taken out on lap one after a hit with Kimi Raikkonen. The French driver clearly blamed the Ferrari rival for what happened although it was a chain of events in which both of them got caught.
“It’s disappointing not to finish the race on a day in which we had such good pace. I had a flying start and I managed to pass Kimi – I was ahead of him all the way to turn two and when we went into the corner. I was behind Ricciardo. But Kimi made a lunge and put me in the barriers. I feel it was my corner and I was on the racing line, but he locked up and hit me. I feel the mistake was on his side but that won’t change the outcome for me. It’s a shame because Sergio showed we had the pace to do really well here. I am still very pleased for the team’s result and I hope we can carry our performance forward to Barcelona and beyond.”
There was no further action on the incident between Ocon and Raikkonen.
Onwards and upwards, @OconEsteban! We’ll get there together! #EO31 #SFIFamily https://t.co/x9bY2RDENU
— Sahara Force India (@ForceIndiaF1) April 30, 2018
