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Sergio Perez's hopes of converting his maiden pole position in F1 into a win were dashed on Sunday. The Mexican driver crossed the line in P4 at the 2022 F1 Saudi Arabian GP after becoming an unwitting victim of bad luck.
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Perez shocked the world by putting in a blistering lap around the Jeddah Corniche Circuit on Saturday to claim pole for the first time in 215 Grands Prix.
On race day, the 32-year-old led the opening 14 laps and even managed to build enough of a gap to Charles Leclerc in second. With everything seeming to be under control, Perez pitted to initiate an undercut strategy on the Ferrari behind him. A crash by Nicholas Latifi, however, brought the Safety Car out, allowing other cars to get a free pit stop.
Speaking to Sky Sports F1 after his teammate Max Verstappen's first win of the 2022 season, he said:
“This is just racing, especially when we knew that we could be in that situation. We had the undercut and the margin that we were looking for, we got it, and things were looking really good but unfortunately [Nicholas] Latifi put it in the wall at the wrong time for me. This is racing. It will come around for us one day but it hurts because we did everything we possibly could do win this race from pole.”
"I felt that was fair enough" - Sergio Perez on giving up P3 for Carlos Sainz after Safety Car infringement
Sergio Perez did not have any problems in handing over P3 to Carlos Sainz after the Ferrari appeared to emerge from the pits ahead of the Red Bull.
The Safety Car caused by Nicholas Latifi's crash had forced the Mexican down the order to P3. Shortly after the resumption of racing, Perez allowed Sainz to pass, having been told to do so on team radio.
While Perez felt it was only fair, he did rue missing out on the chance to attack Sainz for a podium spot on account of late yellow flags.
Speaking to Sky Sports F1, the Mexican said:
“I was told to give the place back, so I gave it back. I felt that was fair enough. After the virtual safety car I think I picked up a bit of speed, I came close, but then there was the yellow flags on the finals laps so I had to slow down and I couldn’t do much more.”
It should be noted that Sergio Perez is under investigation for not slowing down enough under yellow flag conditions at the time of writing. Ferrari's Carlos Sainz and Haas F1's Kevin Magnussen are also under investigation for the same.
