Something went wrong with the strategy, claims Perez

Red Bull's Mexican driver Sergio Perez rued the strategy for dropping down the field at the Belgian Grand Prix, having started the Spa round in an encouraging second spot.

Sergio Perez started from second on the grid, but lost out to Lewis Hamilton at the start. Although the Mexican looked strong during the opening stint, he lost out during the first round of pit stops, and he completely lost connection to the leaders due to his very early second tyre change.

“Starting P2 and fighting for the top positions, the race was going well in the first stint and we managed to stay in the pack and had quite an intense fight with Lewis as well, we clipped wheels at the beginning.

"At some point in the second stint it went wrong with the medium tyre when everyone else was on hard tyres, we just didn’t have any pace and it was hard to push.

"We need to understand what went wrong as we changed a lot on the car but didn’t have the opportunity to try it on the dry as the conditions were so different from qualifying. We compromised a lot in the final stint, in the strategy we lost quite a bit of time unfortunately.

The six-time F1 race winner made an additional pit stop in the closing stages of the race in order to bolster his chances to set the quickest race lap. The additional grip on the soft tyres helped Perez secure the best race lap and thus the additional championship point.

"We managed to set the fastest lap at the end, which was the maximum we could get today and more points in the bag. It’s been a bit of a rollercoaster for me recently, as a Team we need to re-group and take some time during the summer break to understand everything and hopefully we hit the ground running for the second half of the season.

"I’m looking forward to getting some time with my family over the break and getting back in to a good training routine and just really resetting. There is still a long championship ahead," said Perez.