Sergio Perez finished the first Miami Grand Prix in Florida in 4^th place today after a challenging race that saw him complaining on the radio over losing power during the first half of the race. It cost him valuable time in his battle with Carlos Sainz.

But then, the Safety car caused by the collision between Gasly and Norris gave him the chance to get in the fight again. However, the Mexican driver couldn´t beat the Ferrari to make it on the podium.

Checo talked to the media including MotorLat after the race and explained: “I was in a great spot, but unfortunately even with the DRS I couldn´t get close to Carlos. The deficit of the straight-line was quite high. I was pushing really hard to stay close to him on the corners, [but] my tyres were overheating. So as soon as I had a little opportunity, I went for it. It was too dirty off line and after that I just couldn't get close; the deficit of the straight line was big.”

When asked about his chances of fighting for victory after the safety car where he had fresh mediums versus old hards for the three cars in front, he said: “I think with a normal engine I would have had a chance.”

About the problems that made him lose time compared with the top 3 he explained: “I think it was a sensor issue that we had. It was working well but then when we had the sensor issue, we lost like seven seconds in two laps and then it was a poor race.”  

When he was asked whether the issue was solved he said “It [the car] was never the same. I was losing too much time. I was like 10kph down on the straight.”

Reliability has been an issue for Red Bull over the first races of the seasons, with a double DNF for the team in Bahrain and Verstappen breaking down in Australian. The Mexican is fully aware of it. 

“We need to keep working hard because every time we're finding different issues. Luckily we managed to finish the race. At one point it looked really close to being over. To be able to finish the race is good."