Sergio Perez declared his Chinese Grand Prix as the “perfect race” as he scored come from just outside the top 10 to eighth on Sunday.
It was a typical Perez performance as he once again showed his ability to optimise the tyres and hauled his Racing Point above where it probably should have been.
And certainly, at a time when their 2019 car remains quite early in its development compared to most, it was more important points for the Constructors’ Championship.
“We are very pleased with that (the result),” the Mexican stated afterwards. “It’s what we have to do while the car is not at the level we expected to be. We just have to get out there, try to out-perform them, I think it’s what we did.
“Today, we’ve done a pretty good job, very sensible, fantastic lap one and good management of the tyres. I think we just (had) a perfect race.”
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For Perez, all the hard work was done in the opening six corners as he swooped past both Daniil Kvyat, both Haas’ and Nico Hulkenberg.
“It was a tremendous lap one,” he told RaceFans. “I saw a gap, I went for it and I managed to get a lot of places.”
Having only just been held back by Daniel Ricciardo on that first lap too, Checo also attempted a late charge for what would have been the ‘best of the rest’ position.
“I was close at times, but I think he was just managing the tyre, so every time I got close he had the pace to pull away (from me),” he concluded.
Across the garage with Lance Stroll, despite also making a solid move up the field to P12, he was disappointed by Racing Point’s strategy.
“We were in front of [Alex] Albon before the first stop and then he undercut us by one lap and finished in the points, so it’s a bit of a shame,” the Canadian said.
“We could have been more proactive because we didn’t have anyone immediately in front of us.
“I think it was Sergio [Perez] or [Kimi] Raikkonen ahead at the time, about five seconds up the road, so we weren’t really fighting anyone in front and we had Albon three seconds behind.
“It was just a classic undercut. It’s disappointing because once that happened we were in his dirty air and it was tough to overtake.
“We tried an extra stop at the end and got past [Kevin] Magnussen to finish P12, but it could have been more.”