Sergio Perez concedes he is “not yet” at home at Red Bull but was satisfied with more progress at Portimao.
The Mexican’s race in Portugal was blighted by being overtaken by leading midfield cars on soft tyres both at the start and after the safety car restart.
However, once back into fourth place, Perez settled in, showing solid pace despite completing over 50 laps on his initial set of medium tyres.
And that gave Checo more much-needed mileage as he understands the Red Bull car.
“Now that I drove the car in more or less free air throughout the race, I’ve seen the way I have to adapt, the way I have to look after the tyres, that’s all positive,” said Perez.
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“Hopefully we can be back to top form and really be in the mix with the leaders, it’s where we should be.
“Hopefully we can get back to that level, but it is important every weekend to make progress.”
Indeed, despite some good performances, the 31-year-old is still very much in adaptation mode.
“Not yet. I am still far away from that,” he said on if he was “at home” at Red Bull. “So, it’s just a process I guess and hopefully, very soon I can be at home with the race, with the team, and very much feel with it.”
Even so, team boss Christian Horner was pleased by what he saw in Portugal.
“He’s getting there,” he said. “[Portimao’s] been really difficult because of the wind, but you can see the race is coming together for him when he’s in clean air.
“He managed to get past Norris – who passed him fully off the track, again another track limits inconsistency – and yeah, once he was in clean air, he was doing the same lap times as the leaders and at some points was setting the fastest laps.
“It’s really coming together with him. I’m happy with the progress he is making, and with more time and experience everything just comes together for him.”