Perez: P5 the maximum result possible in “frustrating” Spanish F1 GP

Perez struggled for pace all weekend at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya as he qualified eighth, just under a second shy of Red Bull teammate Max Verstappen.

The Mexican spent the first half of Sunday’s race stuck behind Daniel Ricciardo, before overtaking him around the outside of Turn 1.

The Red Bull driver finished fifth, behind Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc in what was an uninspiring weekend for Perez.

Reflecting on the race, Perez said: “Yeah of course it is frustrating but given our poor day yesterday I think that was everything we could have done today. Took me a long time to get past Daniel, he was extremely quick on the main straight, and it is not an easy place to get past people.

“Yeah, was a good move. I knew I had to do it, somehow I was thinking for the whole race how I’m going to make it and at the end made it work.”

Perez confirmed the shoulder issue he had been suffering from in qualifying didn’t affect him in the race.

He trailed teammate Verstappen by 48 seconds at the chequered flag and Perez admitted it’s simply taking too long for him to adapt to the RB16B at the start of each grand prix weekend.

“Yeah I think it’s important to keep making those steps and put the whole weekend together,” Perez added.

“It just takes me a bit too long to get up to speed when we got on a new circuit, the full Friday I’m adapting my style and not there with the car yet, you see things are coming, but not together, but I think once we put them together definitely we have the pace to be able to go pretty quick.”