Perez finished the Bahrain Grand Prix 22.4 seconds behind Verstappen, his race compromised by a lowly grid position that left him trapped behind George Russell and the Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz early on.
But once he had made his way forward, Perez found a run of pace that suggested he is more on top of this year’s RB20 than he had been in the team’s 2023 challenger at times last year.
