Perez saw opportunities at Monza: 'That would have brought me closer to victory'

Perez fought hard in opening stage GP Italy

In the opening phase, Perez made several attempts to overtake Russell. He went off track a few times, but eventually managed to overtake the Briton. Later in the race, he had to pass Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz.

These battles were very hard, as Perez also saw: " yeah, fighting all the way through, basically. First, getting George was not very easy. Had to take the escape road into turn two a few times. Once I managed to clear him, the team told me to box, but at the same lap, Carlos boxed. So I decided to stay out, thinking that we can extend a little bit more and build a bit more of a tyre delta, but then we were at risk of an undercut to George. And we ended up behind the Ferraris. And once Charles had the DRS from Carlos, it was very hard to put him under pressure. After 10 or 11 laps, he lost the DRS from Carlos. And that really made my race when I was able to pass. I had some contact, I think into turn four. I had no space and we ended up touching. Luckily, there was no damage for any of us. And then with Carlos as well, it was another very tight fight, but as expected for those positions."

Perez felt comfortable

This season, Perez has had several disappointing weekends. This weekend was a lot better than some of those others: " Very pleased, but we had a terrible Saturday in terms of the issues we had in FP3 with the car. And it really put us back in qualifying. So I think we could have had a better starting position, which definitely would have put us a lot closer in the fight for victory. But certainly we made a lot of progress, which is a positive thing. I think we made very good set-up directions. And some work with the suspension as well. And I'm able to feel quite a lot more comfortable".