Watch: Sergio Perez overtakes both Fernando Alonso and Carlos Sainz during the F1 Chinese GP sprint

Red Bull driver Sergio Perez used all his prowess behind the wheel to get past Fernando Alonso and Carlos Sainz during the Sprint race at the 2024 Chinese GP.

The Mexican driver found himself embroiled in a titanic tussle against Alonso, Sainz, Leclerc, and Norris for the battle for P3 in the Sprint after Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton checked out from the others.

The fight for P3 saw the Aston Martin driver defend his position from the faster cars behind and was successful for most of the Sprint. However, during the closing stages of the race, Alonso struggled to keep Sainz behind and aggressively defended his position in the tight and twisty sector two.

The two Spanish drivers left no room for each other while battling and eventually made contact. Sergio Perez took advantage of the tussle and swiftly overtook both going into the 1.4km DRS straight to take the final podium position, extending his advantage to around two seconds from the pair in the last two laps.

Fernando Alonso sustained a puncture and damage from his contact with Sainz and eventually retired from the Sprint on the last lap after pitting for a change of tires.

Sergio Perez analyzes his Sprint race podium in Shanghai

Sergio Perez stated that it was difficult for him to get the opportunity to make any headways in the DRS train as everyone had a similar gap and tire degradation.

In his post-Sprint interview, the Red Bull driver said:

"It was really difficult to get through Carlos and Fernando, we all had high degradation following each other and I was defending from Charles through Turn 14 but somehow I got through Fernando and Carlos as they got a little bit too close, saw the opportunity and went for it and we finished really close to Lewis."

The race pace bodes well for Red Bull as Max Verstappen carved out over 12 seconds after getting into the lead from Lewis Hamilton. The RB20 really suits the track layout of the Shanghai International Circuit.

Sergio Perez would hope that with a better performance in the main qualifying later on Saturday, he could get a more competitive grid position than his P6 in the Sprint Qualifying.

It would be difficult for anyone to stop the world champions if the qualifying stays dry as they could certainly lock out the front row by quite some margin.