Sergio Perez might have finished as the runner-up in today's Bahrain GP, but he wasn't happy to be over 20 seconds off the pace set by his Red Bull team mate, race winner Max Verstappen.
While Verstappen started from pole position and fended off an early attack from Ferrari's Charles Leclerc, Perez lined up in fifth and despite getting an early jump on Carlos Sainz he was unable to pass Mercedes' George Russell.
"I overtook Carlos at the start and from there we were able to chip away at things," he said after eventually getting past both Russell and Leclerc to move up to P2 in the second half of the race.
“I think second was the maximum we could have achieved,” Perez said. "But overall I think it's a great way to start the season.”
“It was a really strong race from the team, it’s a great start to the season - you can’t get better than a one-two to start a year which looks like it’ll be a really tight battle."
“Today was a great performance by Max and Checo," commented Red Bull team principal Christian Horner. "Both drivers brought a really strong performance and gave it everything.
"Checo really came through the field, made a couple of good passes and drove a great race," he added. "To come out the race with a one-two finish was a huge achievement."
However, Perez also reported a number of issues with the RB20 in its first outing of the season. "There's plenty we will learn from tonight's race, which will be important for the championship.
"There were a few issues that we need to iron out, but it's just important to keep the momentum with us now.
“It was quite a tricky race with the management of the tyres," he told the media in parc ferme afterward, explaining that the problem he had experienced was in the form of excessive sliding.
“We were having some issues with the engine braking and the driveability, which is not easy around here because there's plenty of low speed [corners]," he explained.
“It was really compound to compound, the amount of sliding we were having,” he continued. There will be a lot of learning to do on how we manage tyres, how we push and then we can go from there.
"We had a good pace, but I think it is going to be track dependent," he suggested. “I'm sure we're going to analyse all of this tonight and make sure we learn for Jeddah.
"From my side it is good to now have a full race distance behind us," he added. "I just want to keep improving because the season is long."
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