Sergio Perez says the McLaren he held off throughout the Azerbaijan Grand Prix were “a lot faster” than his Racing Point Formula 1 car.
Despite pressure from Carlos Sainz Jr and Lando Norris, Perez was able to hang on and finish sixth in Baku.
Perez had qualified fifth, and briefly ran ahead of Max Verstappen’s Red Bull in the early laps.
“It was looking good after lap one,” said Perez.
“I was ahead of Verstappen, I overtook him at the start, but then very early we realised that it was not our race [against Red Bull].
“I was more concerned about the McLarens because they were very strong all the way through, and they pushed me massively.
“I was on the limit the whole race apart from the last laps, so it was a very demanding race.
“No mistakes, no lock-ups, and it was the only way to keep the McLarens behind because they were a lot faster than us.”
Racing Point team principal Otmar Szafnauer felt his squad got “everything right” at a track where Perez had given it podium finishes in its Force India days in 2016 and ’18.
Perez’s team-mate Lance Stroll earned his second points finish of the year in ninth, leaving Racing Point fifth in the constructors’ championship with four races run.
“If you look at what happened ahead of us I think we extracted the most we could have from our starting position,” Szafnauer told Autosport.
“The quicker cars finished ahead of us, Sergio was sixth, Lance did a great job to get into the points from 13th, so it was very good. We got everything right.
“In the last few races from seventh to 18th in qualifying was like three tenths of a second, so it’s really hard to know where in that you’ll fall. It means we’ve got to fight more in the midfield.
“We still have to improve the car, which hopefully we’ll do in Barcelona, and then see how we go for the rest of the year. It’s a huge development race this year.”
Racing Point team owner Lawrence Stroll agreed his team had maximised its potential in Baku.
“I couldn’t be happier,” Stroll told Autosport.
“I think we finished where we deserved to finish, on merit.
“We know that there are six cars that are in a different league. So we couldn’t have asked for more.”