Sergio Perez fights through the Baku madness to claim an unlikely F1 podium

Such is the unpredictability of the Baku City Circuit, Sergio Perez is the only driver to have finished on the podium in two of the three Grands Prix of Azerbaijan.

It might well have been a hat-trick of Baku podiums - and even a win - were it not for the collision with his team-mate in last year's event.

It was the eighth podium of his career and the Force India driver became Mexico's most frequent podium-finisher in Formula One, surpassing Pedro Rodríguez's record of seven.

What made the feat even more impressive was that his own race wasn't without it's trials: He suffered damage in the second corner melee, received a five-second time penalty and had to fend off Sebastian Vettel in the final couple of laps on harder tyres.

Starting eighth, Perez was in the mix of drivers coming together on the opening lap. Williams' Sergey Sirotkin out-braked himself and ran into the back of Perez, causing the Force India driver to damage his front wing against Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen.

The following safety car allowed several drivers - including Perez - to pit for repairs and a change of strategy (ultrasoft to soft), dropping him to fifteenth at the restart.

He was, however, able to profit from making an early pit stop. He made numerous overtakes and climbed through the field as other drivers made their first pit stops. He was running in seventh place when the two Red Bulls came together and brought out the safety car.

With all drivers coming into the pits in preparation for the final sprint, Perez was able to serve his penalty and still return to the track at the head of the midfield in fifth place.

Any further progress seemed unlikely as he was equipped with the supersoft tyres - with every other driver on ultrasofts - because they had no more sets of the softest tyre remaining.

Despite this, the majority of the field were struggling with generating heat and, with Vettel still recovering from his mistake into turn one, Perez took full advantage by slipstreaming past the Ferrari on the main straight.

Following race-leader Valtteri Bottas' puncture, he was now in an unbelievable third place.

It wasn't over there. Perez had to drive what he would later describe as 'the best two laps of his life' in order to keep a recovering Vettel from pinching the final spot on the rostrum.

“I’m extremely happy. Our race was a rollercoaster," said Perez.

"We started with an incident on the first lap when I was hit from behind by a Williams [Sirotkin]. That pushed me into Kimi [Raikkonen] and broke my front wing so I had to pit. I was at the back and then I was given a five seconds penalty.

"I was able to make my way through the field and when the Safety Car came out we managed to keep our position. The team did a great pit stop and I was able to serve my penalty and still come out in front of Grosjean.

"I was looking after my tyres because we only had SuperSofts left and warming them up was very difficult. I was struggling and every corner was a lottery, but then I saw the cars in front of me were struggling too.

"I passed Seb [Vettel] but then he recovered and put pressure on me. I had to give it everything in the last two laps: my pace was unbelievable and I think they were the best two laps of my life."

The result was Perez's first points of the season and promotes Force India up to sixth place in constructors' championship. It remains to be seen whether or not Force India can continue their upwards trend away from their form circuits and reclaim the lucrative fourth place in the standings.

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