It was one of Perez’s best performances and it helped boost his confidence in winning the F1 title this year.
“It’s a long year ahead,” Perez said. “We are in the fight.”
Not everyone is as convinced as Perez though. Even team Principal Christian Horner said that Perez “get a little bit lucky with the safety car.”
This is Perez’s second win this season. He also won in Saudi Arabia two races ago. He is still 6 points short of Verstappen though.
Despite Horner’s comments about the safety car, Perez felt that the first stint helped to define the outcome of the race instead.
“The first stint was very intense,” he said, “just making sure I stayed in the DRS and then once there pushing Max to make sure he used his tires and that was one of the keys.
“Once I was in Max’s DRS, it made my race. It was time to overtake him, but he pitted and then we got the safety car and I got a bit lucky there.
“Then, once we used the hard compound (tire), it was really hard to keep Max behind. I knew as soon as he got DRS, that’s it really, and to keep him behind was a massive challenge. We were really pushing each other.”
There are still a few races yet to go and it may turn out to be a race between two Red Bull drivers for the finish.