Force India were all smiles as Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon took the team to their best result of the Formula 1 season at the Russian Grand Prix.

The duo benefitted from a late puncture for Felipe Massa to finish 'best of the rest' as Perez claimed sixth and Ocon a career-best seventh on Sunday in Sochi.

For Perez, it his 14th consecutive points finish and a result that also saw him move level on points with Daniel Ricciardo in the Drivers’ standings.

“[I'm] Very pleased, very pleased with the job the team is doing,” the Mexican said after the race.

“Sitting here and just realising that we are fourth in the Constructors' with a bigger gap and seventh in the Drivers', it's a great job considering the car we've had for the first races. It's an amazing job.”

Looking forward, the 26-year-old is hoping for a repeat of last year, when a major upgrade at the Spanish Grand Prix allowed Force India moving up the grid.

“Hopefully we can improve, we can improve the next two, three races we can move a lot further up and give a harder challenge to Williams and Red Bull,” Checo said.

“We have big hopes for Barcelona. Hopefully as everyone in here, everyone is waiting for Barcelona. It will depend on how big is our upgrade compared to the rest of the field.”For Ocon, seventh is now the best finish in his short F1 career and marked the fourth consecutive points finish since joining Force India at the start of this year.

As for team-mate Ocon, he broke a run of three consecutive 10th place finishes to begin his career at the Silverstone-based outfit and continue his own streak of points results.

“I was just not getting happy with 10th. It's very good to be coming out of that,” the Frenchman admitted.

“Starting 10th maybe made things easier, even though I didn't have a great start I managed to catch up some positions straightaway after the first three corners, so that was good.

“Then a strong performance from the team really, a great pit stop, great strategy and a very smooth weekend from free practice. Everything went as planned. Very proud of what they did today.

“We are coming into the European races and I think it will make everyone confident in the factory and with some little upgrades I think we can achieve some great stuff and hopefully a bit more.”