Sergio Perez commented his performance soon after the sun sets on Sao Paulo GP. For all the 71 laps, Perez tried at his best to help his teammate Max Verstappen to not reduce to much the gap with Hamilton, as the Mercedes driver seemed to not have any enemy today, recovering from P10 to P3 in just 5 laps.

Despite Perez's best efforts, including a brief repass on Hamilton on lap 18, he couldn't hold the Brit off and lost P2 to him after jumping Bottas on lap one. 

A VSC after his first stop allowed Bottas to pit under it and take 3rd away from him.

During post-race interviews, the Mexican said: “I had so much fun. I’ve been a bit unlucky. The Virtual Safety Car made me lost quite a bit of time and allowed Bottas to overtake me. Today luck was not by our side. But we have other 3 races left and anything can happen.”

The Red Bull drivers reduced managed to minimise the damage and lost only nine points in the constructors' championship.

Perez was very surprised by the speed and power Mercedes had today: “Yes we were very fast on the straights but not as fast as them. They were on another level today. We did everything we could.”

On lap 69, Red Bull’s strategists made Perez pit for a brand new set of soft tyres, to take away the fastest lap from Lewis Hamilton. The Mexican managed to take it away from the Mercedes driver, also helping Max Verstappen in the Drivers' Championship in the process.