Sergio Perez says his teammate Esteban Ocon won the qualifying battle in 2018.
Perez bested his highly rated teammate Ocon in the driver’s standings for the second year in a row. The Mexican stood at 8th while the Frenchman was at 12th.
When we asked him to give us his assessment of the qualifying where he lost the battle 7:14 to Ocon, Perez admitted the French driver was better in qualifying.
“I think it reflects a bit as you said, in qualifying, he probably had the upper hand,” he said. “I mean although the gap between us in qualifying is less than a tenth, he was more often in front in qualifying than myself.
“But I think that the gap in the races was bigger than the qualifying. In the races, where I did the bigger difference, always the pace was looking a bit stronger in race pace, so I think was very close again.
“He was slightly better in the qualifying and I was a bit better in the races.”
Reflecting on his performance in the recently concluded season, Perez acknowledged he was happy to finish just seven points behind the ‘best of the rest’ driver Nico Hulkenberg.
Perez was especially pleased with the results because of the amount of trouble the team went through during the season.
He said: “It’s been a good year when you consider everything has happened. It has been a very intense season mentally with everything that I had to go through with the administration process of the team, negotiations and so on.
“I ended up in the position that a racing driver never wants to be, so considering that, the mental stress and all that I had throughout the season, I think it’s been a fantastic outcome, a great outcome for the team.
“[There were] good results for me and without the retirement in Mexico, I think I should have been just two-three points away from Hulkenberg to be the best of the rest. All in all, it’s been all right – the only midfield car to score a podium as well, so it’s been an OK year.
“The administration process was a very difficult you can realize when the news came out but there has been a lot of preparation going on to very complicated parts where at the same time, I had to drive the car.
“I tried to perform at the very best and it was never easy to do that but I think as a team we went a very difficult period, very difficult month but I am happy with the outcome to look back now and reflect on we have done I think it’s not too bad.”
Perez is retaining his seat at Rising Point since he brings significant sponsorship deals to the team.
