Perez confident he could have held off Russell

Sergio Perez was able to take full advantage of the total chaos in the pit lane at Mercedes and secure his first F1 win. Whether the Mexican could have kept his P1 without George Russell's unfortunate tyre is logically the next question. Perez is confident he could have kept his place.

In the FIA video press conference, Perez explained that their experiences at Imola helped make their decisions regarding their pitstops. 

“After what happened in Imola when we did the wrong choice, pitting under the Safety Car, we were clear what we wanted to do here. We were obviously staying out and we were pretty confident I was going to be able to restart those tyres and to go to the end with good pace.”

"It was going to be close"

“I think with George it was going be close but I think I was going to be able to hold him back", Perez continues. “We had good pace. He was about two to three-tenths, sometimes four-tenths, sometimes I was matching him.”

“I think the closest he got was 2.8s. The information that we had as a team was that you needed a difference of eight-tenths of a lap to be able to overtake. It was going to be close but I think given the age of my tyres, given the pace I had towards the end, the pace I had in hand, I was going to be able to hold him back to the end.”