Force India pulling off "big miracles", says Perez

The Mexican driver scored for the fourth race in the row in the Russian Grand Prix to keep Force India in fourth place in the constructors' championship.

Perez finished the Sochi race in sixth position, ahead of teammate Esteban Ocon, who also scored for the fourth consecutive time.

Perez reckons that the results keep flattering the Force India car, as he reckons his team is very far from teams like Red Bull and Williams.

"Very satisfied," Perez said. "I think looking where we are, we shouldn't have finished there with pure pace. We were there again to take the opportunity from Red Bull and Williams, they had issues today.

"But very happy, I think the team once again did a tremendous job, so very happy, satisfied with the performance of today.

"At the moment, we're really far. In pure pace, we shouldn't be there. We've been doing big miracles to be where we are.

"But I think if we bring a lot of pace to the car. We can definitely give them a big challenge."

Ocon, whose seventh-place finish is his best result in Formula 1 to date, labelled his weekend as "fantastic".

"It feels great," he said. "A strong performance from the team today, very happy with what we have achieved. It was a very smooth weekend, everything went as planned.

"We were improving all the time, which is great, we never went backwards in one session so that's fantastic before coming to Barcelona with some upgrades.

"I think it makes everyone hope for great things."

Additional reporting by Valentin Khorounzhiy