Sergio Pérez praised Williams rookie Franco Colapinto for his driving during the Singapore Grand Prix, stating the Argentine “didn’t put a foot wrong.”
Colapinto pulled off a great pass at the start of the race, divebombing down the inside of a group of cars to vault up the order.
Pérez found himself stuck behind the Williams driver and at one point over the radio told Red Bull how impressed he was.
“He’s very good. Difficult to pass, Colapinto,” Pérez said during the race.
Pérez eventually got past through the pit strategy.
Speaking after the grand prix, Pérez said: “He did a fantastic race. He didn’t put a foot wrong. It was very difficult to keep up with him at the time and it was just a difficult race.
“In the end we managed to do the undercut on him, but that was the only one we could do.”
Colapinto has excelled since replacing Logan Sergeant at Williams, out-qualifying Alex Albon in his debut race and then scoring points in his second race at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
His Baku performance saw him singled out for praise by Lewis Hamilton.
Colapinto was grateful for Pérez’s warm words after the Singapore race.
“I was trying to push. Checo is a super nice guy and I grew up watching him racing in F1, waking up early in Argentina, and supporting him as a guy from Mexico, this was the closest to us.
“It was very nice to support him when I was little. And now it’s even better to be racing against him.”