F1 News, Reports and Race Results

Perez feels media exaggerated recent 'rough patch'

Sergio Perez admitted to hitting a "rough patch" in the races that preceded his win in Singapore last weekend, but the Red Bull charger believes the media also exaggerated his difficulties.

Although Perez delivered a sizeable amount of points to his team over the summer, the Mexican struggled to perform on a par with teammate Max Verstappen who collected five consecutive wins before stumbling at Marina Bay.

But last weekend, Verstappen's pain - especially in qualifying - was Perez's gain, with the latter snatching the lead at the start from Ferrari poleman Charles Leclerc and never relinquishing first place thereafter thanks to a skilled and flawless drive.

After a difficult period, it was a timely win for Perez who reckoned that his triumph was one of his best drives ever in F1.

©RedBull

"This win is really special for me, because I’ve had a bit of a rough patch in the last few races," he said.

"The media in Formula 1 makes it a lot bigger, maybe because I’m just Mexican. And if I’m not two races in a row in the podium, then I’m having the worst season ever and Red Bull should drop me and all that sort of stuff that you get to see.

"It’s just nice to get that win. It’s not a reminder to anyone of how good I am. But it’s just always good to be able to put together this sort of performance."

Read also:

Perez felt that the sheer intensity of last weekend's tricky wet-to-dry race, that threw as many wrenches as possible into the works, justified him calling his win a career best in F1.

"How intense it was," he said. "To keep Charles behind, especially after the restart, when the warm-up was super hard and basically half the track was on the dry side but the other half was good enough for inters and we were on the slick.

"So [it was difficult] not to make a mistake, and control Charles, who was really strong in the early phases. But then the pace I had in the last few laps was really strong."

©RedBull

After last Sunday's event, Red Bull team boss Christian Horner gave his driver a heartfelt and wholly justified friendly embrace, telling Perez how proud he was with the Mexican's impeccable performance.

But Horner especially hopes that Perez's commanding win in Singapore will the Mexican's poise and confidence in the final races of 2022.

"Checo has always been phenomenal on street circuits, he seems to like slippery street tracks," said Horner.

"And we’ve been working hard with him on set-ups and so on. Hopefully this will now give him confidence for the remainder of the championship."

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter

Michael Delaney

Recent Posts

Marko: ‘No chance at all’ for Red Bull in Las Vegas

Helmut Marko believes that Red Bull and Max Verstappen are unlikely to challenge for victory…

10 hours ago

GM revives bid to join F1 with accelerated talks for 2026 entry

Automotive giant General Motors is reportedly back in the game as a potential entrant in…

12 hours ago

Las Vegas GP: Thursday's action in pictures

The opening day of running at the Las Vegas GP was a smooth but chilly…

13 hours ago

Williams' headaches persist into Vegas practice

Williams is continuing to fight uphill battles this weekend in Las Vegas as a knock-on…

14 hours ago

Ferrari's Sainz 'not satisfied with where we are' in Vegas

It was a solid start to the Las Vegas weekend for Ferrari with Carlos Sainz…

15 hours ago

Norris labels McLaren long-run pace ‘shocking’ in chilly Vegas

Lando Norris didn’t hold back in his assessment of McLaren’s performance on the opening day…

16 hours ago