First lap charges "critical" in F1 2017, says Perez

The Mexican was one of the stars in the early stages at Sakhir, with a frantic first lap assault from 18^th to 13^th place capturing attention after on-board footage emerged on the official F1 website last week.

But Perez says that being brave away from the start is no longer an option, because making progress in the first moments of the race is now an essential part of the job.

“Definitely, the first lap is very critical these days,” the Mexican told Motorsport.com. “You have to take calculated risks, especially when you are in the pack – because so many things can go wrong.

“It’s not only from your side, but especially with so many rookies out there. It is not easy to always make the best out of lap one.”

Fightback

Reflecting on his opening lap, Perez said that he initially thought he had blown it – because his getaway was not great and Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson briefly drew alongside him.

But he made up for it when he saw a gap emerge between Fernando Alonso’s McLaren and Toro Rosso’s Carlos Sainz under braking for Turn 1.

“It was a really good lap – especially because my start was quite poor,” explained Perez. “You can see the Sauber next to me drag past and I thought, ‘Oh no.’ I needed a good start and I didn’t get it.

“But I saw the little room into Turn 1 with Fernando and Sainz, and I went for it and it worked really well. And from then on, I managed my way through.

“It is important not to crash and not to puncture your tyres or damage your front wing – you have to very precise in those places. You don’t know what the people in front and in front of them are doing, so you have to react quickly.

“If you brake too late for them, the ones ahead can brake early and then you crash into them. So it is not an easy position to be in.”

Qualifying form

Although Perez’s race craft and good strategy calls have helped Force India to move into fourth place in the constructors’ championship, he thinks its qualifying problems reflect Force India’s lack of out-and-out performance.

“I think what we are mainly lacking is pure downforce,” he said. “I have been saying for a while, I feel that we are the slowest team in the midfield.

“Although the results don’t show that because we are fourth in the constructors’ championship at the moment, I believe that we are at the moment the slowest team in the midfield pack.

“But we have been able to make the most of our midfield opportunities. But when we come to a track where the car is important, like Bahrain, we struggled a lot.”