Hamilton caught me “at my worst time” in the Turkey duel

On the wet track, Hamilton tried to fight his way back through the field after starting eleventh due to a start penalty. On lap 35, Hamilton had moved up to fifth and launched an attack on Perez on the back straight from Istanbul Park.

After the couple went wheel to wheel through the final combination of corners that nearly forced Perez over the pit lane, they managed to stay fourth on Turn 1 and hold Hamilton back for the remainder of the race.

Perez revealed that Hamilton caught him at the worst possible time as he struggled to keep his first set of intermediates going beyond half the race.

“At that point it was pretty intense because Lewis really caught me at my worst time of the race because I was struggling so much with my tires at that point,” said Perez.

“The first stint was so difficult for me, especially towards the end, and Lewis was pretty quick. I think he was the fastest car on the track at the time, so it was pretty difficult to hold him back at that point.

“We had a good fight, I even had to avoid the bollard at the pit entrance. But overall it was a good fight and I managed to stay ahead.”

Perez’s efforts to fend off Hamilton were invaluable to Red Bull teammate Max Verstappen in the title fight against the seven-time world champion.

After Hamilton stepped down to fifth, Perez eventually finished third behind Verstappen, taking his first podium since the French Grand Prix in June after a difficult period in his first Red Bull campaign.

Sergio Perez, Red Bull Racing, 3rd place, on the podium

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

When asked if his first top-3 finish in nine races was a relief, Perez said a podium would have been coming for some time if it hadn’t been for a streak of bad luck.

“To be honest, I had so much bad luck in the last few races,” he replied. “I finished on the podium in Monza, but I had the penalty. I was on the podium three laps ago in Russia.

“It’s been going on for many, many races. But it’s definitely nice, especially in a race like today, where I felt so uncomfortable with the car and we didn’t quite have the pace to keep up with the Mercedes.”

On Saturday, Perez qualified seventh, half a second behind Verstappen, after only having one new set of tires for the crucial Q3 shootout.

For the Mexican, who believes he’s turned around in terms of his own performance, this proved to be a slip up on an otherwise more competitive weekend.

“Yeah, definitely. The whole weekend was a lot more competitive,” he said.

“We didn’t have the opportunity to show that in qualifying because we were very aggressive with our strategy, which pushed us into the background in qualifying with the soft tires.

“And I think we just needed the few tenths that we had in hand because we showed good pace all weekend and I’m sure we could have achieved a much better qualifying.

“So I can certainly see that understanding [is there] and that I can get together more with the car. “