Perez understands nothing about Leclerc action: 'Thought he would do that'

"To be very honest, I think the contact was unfortunate," he told GPblog. "But to make contact, you require both parties. And I think Lando also had some responsibility in that because he turned into me as if there was no one there. We ended up making contact tyre to tyre. As I was fully alongside him, he cut the corner, he gained time, and I still had the penalty. So I honestly don't agree with the decision. But as a driver, there's nothing you can do. I mean, I'm just happy with the performance we put in today."

Charles Leclerc let Perez pass in the closing stages, hoping the Mexican would gain five seconds on George Russell. In that case, Ferrari and not Mercedes would finish second among the constructors. Perez had realised what was going on: "Yes, I did. But, I was surprised that I thought Charles was going to hold back George in the end, a bit in the finance sector. Because I think I finished 1.1 seconds from George. And I thought he was going to hold him back. It was quite easy to do in the finance sector. But maybe he didn't have the full information."

Perez praises Verstappen

Perez then looked back on his season: "Yeah, I think the Sunday form has been very, very strong this year. That's the only reason we finished P2 in the championship. I think definitely Saturdays have been very difficult this season. And it's something we've got to work on and make sure that we take a gear there and we improve for next year."

It's something for later. Perez looks forward to some time off first: "Yeah, definitely. I'm looking forward massively to it and I want to do it. Yeah, I want to come back strong next year. I think we also have to give credit to Max. He's done an incredible year in the history of the sport. He's been driving really, really well. And yeah, it's been very impressive. It's been amazing to see."