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Perez "speechless" after podium in Azerbaijan

16:19, 29 Apr 2018

byAdam Newton

Sergio Perez took his first podium in almost two years in Baku after a terrific drive after suffering a five second penalty.

Perez began the race in P7 and made his way through the field towards the end of the race to take what was a very unlikely podium.

He was sat behind Raikkonen in P5 during the safety car, which was brought out by the Red Bull collision and was able to overtake Sebastian Vettel after the German ran wide and flat spotted his tyre whilst attempting to take the lead from Valtteri Bottas.

Perez was promoted to third when Bottas was forced to retire with his puncture.

Perez was proud of his performance, and after the race he said: “Today I think I did the best two laps of my whole career.

“The last two laps, with Sebastian behind, with cold tyres. It was so difficult. I was on the supersoft tyres and I had to keep a very strong rhythm and try to keep close to Raikkonen so Sebastian didn’t get close enough.

“I’m speechless.”

It was a fantastic race from the Mexican, who scores his first points of the season with a podium.

Force India’s upgrades have clearly worked, and Perez will be looking to score more points and possibly podiums this season.