Sergio Perez expects to be on the podium every weekend after a confidence-building podium at the Hungarian Grand Prix. The Mexican's long-term F1 future had been coming under increasing pressure as a run of five races without a Q3 appearance, a number of mistakes and the return of Daniel Ricciardo at AlphaTauri allowed the rumour mill to start churning. A crash for the Red Bull driver in the opening five minutes of the weekend was the worst possible start, but to Perez' credit, he recovered through qualifying to at least break his Q3 curse. From ninth on the grid, an alternate strategy - starting on Hard tyres - allowed for aggressive second and third stints as Perez scythed his way up to third, just unable to catch Lando Norris in the closing stages. "We got close to P2," said Perez. "Unfortunately, we had to go through a lot of backmarkers. "The track was unbelievably dirty offline so in the last laps, I had some pick-up going through the backmarkers which meant I lost a few seconds. "I recovered towards the end but it was just too late. "Anyway, overall it was a great strategy by the team and we managed to have an excellent result." On whether this was the result he needed to turn fortunes around, Perez added: "Definitely, this sort of performance and days help. "From now on, I look forward to being on the podium every single weekend, so let's keep it up."
Robust move
Perez's race involved a number of robust moves, none more so than with the second McLaren of Oscar Piastri. The Mexican took to the outside at Turn 1, where contact was made, before shuffling the Australian rookie onto the grass at the exit of Turn 2 to assume position. Analysing the move, Perez explained: "We were on very similar aged tyres. "We pitted on the same lap, so we were on fresh tyres so I went for it around the outside. "We touched into Turn 1 and into Turn 2, we touched again. It was close but hard racing."
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