Sergio Perez firmly believes he is back in form following “a rough patch” that wrecked his early-season hope of an F1 title bid.
Red Bull driver Perez followed up his third place in the Hungarian Grand Prix by finishing second to team-mate Max Verstappen a week later in the race in Belgium, the Mexican’s first second-place outing since Miami in early May.
It was that race where Perez’s slide began as the 33-year-old started on pole but was beaten by Verstappen who came from ninth on the grid to take the chequered flag.
Instead of Perez coming away from that race with a third win from five races and being just a point behind Verstappen in the drivers’ standings, he was left trailing by 14.
A confidence-destroying crash in qualifying at the next race in Monaco knocked the wind out of Perez’s sails from which he never really recovered, additionally sparking a run of six consecutive races in which he failed to reach Q3.
Perez’s performance in Budapest was a step in the right direction, and although he led the race at Spa-Francorchamps for 17 laps following an early lap-one pass on polesitter Charles Leclerc, he had to settle for second following another Verstappen overtake.
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But a seemingly more relaxed Perez said: “It was a good race for the team, we deserved it. We had a great start, I managed to get through Charles, which was one of the targets.
“I knew it was quite crucial for my race to get him on lap one. We had a good launch, so it was just about making sure we got him into Turn 5, and it worked well
“From then on, I was just doing my own race. We managed to do a good first stint. Max then came through in the second pretty fast, and there was nothing I could have done there. Afterward, it was just about making sure we brought it home safely without too much damage on the car.”
Identifying the most satisfying aspect of finishing runner-up on this occasion, Perez added: “Just getting that form back.
“We were on the podium last weekend (in Hungary) and now, having these sorts of races in clean air is where you learn a lot and you make those steps in the coming races.
“My last few races have been a bit of…very hard to get a proper read on them because of the way you have to race with dirty air, and so on, so that to me is where we’re going to be learning the most on that stint in free air, and the second stint as well.
“I now really look forward to not leaving the podium anymore from now until the end of the year. It’s been a bit of a rough patch, but I think we have overcome it, and here, we have managed to score great points for the team.”
Despite finally gathering a degree of momentum again with consecutive podiums, Perez remarked he “really needs” the upcoming summer break.
“For us, it gives us a bit of time to go deep in our analysis, to see what we can improve for the next 10 races, and basically keep the momentum going to the end of the season,” he said.
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