ANALYSIS: Perez secures additional point for quickest race lap

Despite another disappointing race at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, Red Bull driver Sergio Perez secured the additional championship point for setting the quickest race lap at the Belgian Grand Prix. F1Technical's senior writer Balazs Szabo delivers his latest analysis.

After a run of problematic races, Sergio Perez did not find much relief in the Belgian Grand Prix either. On the final lap, however, he did at least manage to send out a positive signal by clocking the DHL Fastest Lap.

Though he made four podium appearances in the first six races, the Red Bull man has had little to celebrate in the early part of the summer. Hungary and Belgium, the last two races before the break, at least showed a partial upward trend. In Budapest, Perez fought his way back from P16 to P7. Qualifying for the Belgian GP also gave cause for optimism.

The Mexican had a promising starting position with a second spot on the grid last Sunday. But he lost a place to seven-time world champion, Lewis Hamilton at the start to drop down to third.

Despite showing promising pace in the opening stages of the race, he lost out during the first round of pit stops, dropping back several spots. Red Bull elected to complete an early second pit stop with Perez which ultimately saw the Mexican lose connection to the sharp end of the field.

Shortly before the end, Red Bull called Perez in for an extra stop to fit a set of soft tires, which enabled him to claim the DHL Fastest Lap with a time of 1:44.701.

The bonus point could prove to be particularly valuable for Red Bull, as McLaren are rapidly closing the gap in the world championship. “We managed to set the fastest lap at the end, which was the maximum we could get today, and it means more points in the bag,” said Perez.

“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 hit the ground running for the second half of the season.”

The McLaren duo of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri set the second and third-quickest race lap which were 0.8 and 1.1 seconds slower than what Perez managed on his fresh set of softs.

Interestingly, Lewis Hamilton, who inherited the victory after the disqualification of his team-mate George Russell, set his best race lap of 1m46.653s on Lap 33 which was almost two seconds slower than Perez's best effort.

Despite being on 34-lap old hards on the last lap, Russell recorded his own best race lap on the last 7.004 metres of the 69th Belgian Grand Prix when he was chased down by his seven-time world champion team-mate. His best effort was a 1m47.113s, which was over two seconds slower than Perez's benchmark.