Red Bull advisor Dr Helmut Marko was full of praise for Sergio Perez after Sunday’s Brazilian Grand Prix, where the Mexican driver recovered from ninth on the grid to finish fourth.
The 33-year-old agonisingly missed out on the podium by just 0.053s, following an “unbelievable” fight with Fernando Alonso.
Perez caught Alonso in the second half of the race and put the Aston Martin driver under immense pressure, in what Marko hailed as “racing at its finest”.
“It was a fascinating fight,” Marko told Sky Deutschland. “Unbelievable – the position changes, the chase, how they worked tactically. Racing at its finest.”
Want to work in Formula 1? Browse the latest F1 job vacancies
Throughout their fight which lasted for several laps, Perez only managed to make a move stick on the two-time World Champion on the penultimate lap.
However, Alonso wasn’t going to give up easily, with the Spanish driver having forced Checo into a mistake at the first corner on the last lap.
Perez went into the first turn too deep which gave Alonso a superb run down into Turn 4, where he swept around the outside to gain P3 back.
Alonso survived a race to the line to secure third by the finest of margins, with Marko admitting that Perez’s last lap mistake cost him.
“The mistake on the last lap was that he didn’t come out of the third corner properly, but that’s easy for me to say,” Marko admitted.
Despite missing out on the podium, Perez looked good in Brazil and now sits comfortably ahead of Lewis Hamilton in the fight for second in the Drivers’ Championship.
Perez boasts a 32-point advantage over Hamilton, convincing Marko that the position is secured.
“His pace has been good since Mexico, both in qualifying and in the race,” added Marko.
READ: Lewis Hamilton laughs over team radio following instruction
“He had some bad luck in Austin, but he now has a 30 point lead over (Lewis) Hamilton, so now we can assume that he will keep second place.”
His performance in Brazil is huge for Checo, given that it’s silenced a lot of the rumours regarding his future.
Red Bull stressed once again during the Brazilian GP that Perez will remain with them in 2024 and that his contract will be respected, ending all the speculation that he’s going to be replaced.