Perez happy with sixth after "fantastic" day

Sergio Perez says it was a fantastic day for Racing Point after both he and teammate Lance Stroll finished in the points and the Mexican as best of the rest behind the top three teams.

After fighting with Red Bull's Max Verstappen in the early exchanges of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Perez said he was strongly focused on keeping both McLaren's at bay in the lower reaches of the top 10.

“It has been a fantastic day," he said. "It was looking good at the start when I passed Verstappen, but we didn’t have the pace to fight against the Red Bulls over the race distance.

"I was actually focussed on keeping the McLarens at bay. It was not easy to keep them behind and I had to drive carefully for the whole of the race. After the VSC I was able to get good temperature in the tyres and this helped me stay in P6.

"I am happy we succeeded in keeping our position, now we can celebrate a good day for the team with both cars in the points. We have an upgrade coming in Barcelona and I am looking forward to our performance there.”