Sergio Perez praised Red Bull after the Dutch Grand Prix for their “super quick” decision to pit the Mexican for Intermediates at the end of the first lap, a call which ultimately promoted the Mexican into the race lead.
Starting from seventh on the grid at Zandvoort, a podium was always going to be a tough challenge for the Mexican, but it became an easier task following Red Bull’s excellent call.
A sudden downpour took place at the end of the opening lap, with Perez having been the first to dart into the pits.
He inherited the race lead as a result, with him having pitted for Intermediates at the perfect moment.
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Perez slipped to second later in the race when the circuit returned to being dry, as Max Verstappen regained the lead after performing an undercut on the 33-year-old.
Second became third for Perez after he span at the opening corner, following another huge downpour which resulted in streams running across the circuit.
He looked both front tyres, before performing a 180-degree turn so that the rear of his car hit the tyre barrier, not his front wing.
This error demoted him to third, as he was overtaken by Fernando Alonso.
On the same lap, Perez then pitted again for Extreme Wet tyres, but collided with the pit wall and sped in the pit-lane.
He was slapped with a five-second time penalty for this, which demoted him to fourth behind Pierre Gasly at the end of the race.
It was a truly chaotic event for Perez, who admitted afterwards that he was trying to look after his tyres before the second deluge of rain fell.
“We were expecting rain,” Perez told media including GPBlog.com.
“The team was telling me that there was more rain coming, so it was very important because the track was on the dry side. So if I were to push, I would just have destroyed completely the inter tyre.”
Perez deserved a podium for his efforts, but his time penalty proved too costly.
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It was Red Bull’s “super quick” call at the start of the race which made a potential podium possible though, something he praised the team for.
“Yes, they were super quick, so well done for the team on that,” Perez noted.
“Unfortunately, we didn’t go dry, there was more rain coming on the inter. Otherwise, we could have pushed more on that first stage, probably keep the lead for longer.”