Sergio Perez started and finished the Italian Grand Prix in eighth position, and bar an entertaining duel with George Russell, didn’t have much to show for his afternoon in a Red Bull that was proving a handful around the Temple of Speed.
Much like his team mate Max Verstappen, Perez struggled with the balance of his RB20, finding tyre wear higher than expected and failing to make a two-stop strategy work to his favour. He started on the hard compound, before running that again, moving onto the mediums late on.
“[I’m] really disappointed,” he admitted afterwards. “I was expecting it to be difficult but not this bad. We basically were slow and had high deg [degradation], especially on the medium.
“I compromised my race a little bit I think to keep George [Russell] behind, but that worked quite well for us because we were able to hold George behind for a little bit and in the end he came really close to Max, so I think it made a difference to the team in terms of points we secured today.”