Perez thanks Red Bull: "Team did a good job".

"Basically, the team did a good job leaving me in the first stint," Perez said to the Sky Sports camera. Keeping the RB16B on track was quite a challenge. "The car was pretty undriveable in the first ten laps and the last five laps of that stint. The degradation was a lot higher than expected."

Because Perez stayed out about seven laps longer than Valtteri Bottas and less early on in his tyres (during the second stint), he managed to secure a podium spot. "The team made the right decisions. We managed the tyres when we needed to," he said. A second place would have been possible if the race had lasted a little longer. "We needed three more laps to catch Lewis."

A third-place finish is solid, but Perez is chasing more. "My weekend was not as complete as I would have liked. We have to keep improving," he concluded to the British medium.