Perez relieved to come away with points after challenging race

Although the Mexican finished fifth in the race, it was far from easy for the Force India driver as he struggled to find the sweet spot at every re-start, which limited his performance.

Starting on the intermediate tyres, Perez had a difficult time finding pace but held on to fifth until his first pitstop.

"It was a very difficult race starting on intermediates, we were lacking a lot of pace and having a lot of degradation," said Perez after the race.

"Every time we were re-starting, it would get a while to get the pressure and the temperature on the tyres.

"So, I am not really satisfied with the performance that we had during the weekend but I think in those conditions coming out with a fifth place is a very good and strong result," he added.

After switching to softs during his first stop, Perez lost places to Carlos Sainz and teammate Nico Hulkenberg. Further, he even overtaken by Fernando Alonso before regaining the lost ground later on.

Ultimately, after getting past Alonso, he slotted himself at fifth catching Max Verstappen up the road but in the end there were not many laps to do so, thereby bringing home a fine fifth place.

"I think, in the end all what matters is the result, and we got it today. I was getting a lot closer to Max who was struggling on the soft tyres but there was not enough time to catch and pass him," he said.

Elaborating more on the race, the Mexican explained the difficulties he faced: "We lost quite a lot of time in the beginning in the laps where people were on the soft compound."

"But then we recovered after the safety car because I think we had a better tyre with the harder compound but (at the same time) we also had pressure from the newer soft tyres behind in the last stint, it was a very challenging race but very happy to come away with points."

His teammate, however, had another retirement, his fifth in seven races, after clashing with Daniel Ricciardo. The German was looking good for a strong result until the contact.

But with Perez scoring, Force India moved to 102 points, 32 ahead of Lotus and 48 behind Red Bull, with three races to go.