Perez feels he has “definitely” turned a corner after Turkish GP F1 podium

Perez returned to the podium for the first time since the French Grand Prix with a strong drive to third.

The highlight of the race was Perez’s impressive defence against seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton. 

While Perez once again struggled in qualifying, he was on the pace throughout Friday practice and on race day. 

“Yeah, definitely,” Perez replied when asked if he felt he had turned a corner with regards to his performance. “The whole weekend has been a lot more competitive. Yesterday in qualifying we didn’t get to show that because we were very aggressive with our strategy, so that put us on the backfoot with the soft tyres into qualifying. 

“I think we just miss that couple of tenths that we had in hand, because we’ve shown good pace throughout the weekend and I’m sure we could have had a much better qualifying. So yeah, certainly I can see that understanding I am getting more together with the car.”

Despite Red Bull’s double podium at Istanbul Park, it still lost ground to Mercedes in the constructors’ championship. 

Perez remains confident Red Bull can still win its first titles since 2013 after ending his podium drought.

“Honestly, the last few races have been so unlucky,” Perez added. “In Monza I finished on the podium but I had the penalty; Russia, three laps to go I was on the podium. 

“It’s been like coming already for many races but certainly it’s nice, especially like today where I felt so uncomfortable with the car and we didn’t have quite the pace to match the Mercs, and I feel like we maximised our result today and I’m sure if we are able to do that for the next six races, we can still win the championship.”