Perez taken by surprise in Leclerc's late attack for P2

Sergio Perez was "not expecting" the last lap lunge for second place by Charles Leclerc during the Las Vegas Grand Prix.

The Red Bull driver managed to work his way up the field after picking up damage on the opening lap, making use of a mid-race Safety Car to emerge in the top five for the second half of the race.

Perez briefly led the race before Leclerc passed him and team-mate Max Verstappen overcame a five-second penalty to overtake both for the lead.

Leclerc made a mistake in the closing stages, which gave Perez P2 but on the final lap, the Ferrari driver made a late lunge into Turn 14 and sealed the position.

"With Charles, he went straight and it was quite difficult out there with a gust of wind that we had a few times," said Perez.

"I ended up locking up a few times, but luckily we kept it on track. Then in the end with Charles, I wasn't expecting him [to make the move].

"He was point seven [on time delta behind], but then the braking zone he was he was there so well done to him."

Perez: It was really difficult with damage

Perez managed to seal second in the Drivers' Championship after outscoring Lewis Hamilton, but it was not easy after he had to comeback from first-lap contact.

"It was really difficult with a lot of damage," said Perez.

"Initially, we broke the front wing so we basically went all the way to the back of the grid and then progressively we were picking [places] one by one.

"Things were going well, we had really strong pace on that first stint so we put ourselves back in contention."