Perez off the podium: 'Early on you could see that Russell was very strong'

Sergio Perez might have thought from an 11th starting position with a strong RB19 to drive to a podium finish, but nothing could be further from the truth. Fourth place turned out to be the end result, as the Mercedes also showed good pace at the Circuit de Catalunya. The Mexican reacts to his Sunday opposite GPblog and others.

"Taking unnecessary risks for us was important, and from now on, I think it was just being patient and try to go long and then the race was later on," said Perez, who did not finish among the first three in Spain. "But unfortunately, we just finished a bit further behind than George [Russell]."

Whether the 33-year-old driver was surprised by the speed of Lewis Hamilton and Russell's W14s? "They were quite strong actually today. I think they had quite a good race pace today," he stated to GPblog and others .

Perez felt podium was out of reach

In the final stint, Perez had to chase Russell. He came close, but was just a few mere seconds short. He already felt after his last pit stop that he had no real chance of a podium finish. "Yeah, it did feel that far. I thought at the time I wasn't fighting with George [Russell], I was more of Carlos [Sainz], but then very early on you could see that George was really strong," said Max Verstappen's teammate.