Perez was on "full limit" to keep McLarens at bay

Sergio Perez insisted he was on the "full limit" to try and keep the two "much faster" McLaren cars behind him at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix on Sunday.

Perez qualified all of the way up in fifth to keep his hopes of a third podium finish in Baku alive, but an early battle with Max Verstappen ended in the Dutchman overtaking the Mexican driver.

Charles Leclerc then overtook the Racing Point and Perez had to settle with P6 - whilst trying to keep Lando Norris and Carlos Sainz away from overtaking him and he admitted he was at the "full limit" to do just that.

"It was very tough," the Racing Point driver admitted. "It was a race where I spent the whole race on the full limit, just trying to get as much lap-time out of it. It was looking good after lap one I was ahead of Verstappen, I overtook him at the start but then very early on we realised that it was not our race and I was more concerned about the McLarens, because they were very strong all the way through.

"They pushed me massively and I spent the whole race on the limit, it was quite a demanding race."