Sergio Perez feels he was prevented from challenging for victory in the Bahrain Grand Prix by what Charles Leclerc did at the start of the race.
Max Verstappen was the victor in the first race of the new Formula 1 season, and it was one of the simplest drives of his entire career. He sped off from the start line and never looked back, barely even having to push his car to the limit.
Perez was the only man on the track who had a car underneath him capable of matching the Dutchman's machine. But he was unable to do so, finishing 12 seconds behind his team-mate.
The reason for that, according to the Mexican, was the excellent launch off the line that Leclerc enjoyed. The Monegasque started third but made a better start then Perez, battling with him in the first few corners and temporarily taking second place.
Perez eventually moved past the Ferrari and made second place his own, while Leclerc was later forced to retire from the race as his engine died. But that early tussle was enough, the 33-year-old from Guadalajara claims, to prevent him from competing against Verstappen.
"Yeah, that was really the case, missing out to Charles on that first stint," he told reporters. "It was really difficult to get by him, he had the new tyres so you could see the difference on that first stint.
"As soon as I was getting a bit closer to him, trying to attack him earlier on, I got deg and destroyed my tyres, so I had to be really patient and get my way through it. Once I did, I was able to drive some fast laps and my tyres and on the second stint were in better shape than his and I was able to get through.
"But it was just too late. It was just a few laps too many, too late, and that put us quite behind Max. Once that happened, we basically just maintained the gap throughout the race so we had no chance to fight for the win.
"But [the race] was all about minimising the bad start, and we've got plenty of things to analyse, to try to improve and get this consistency throughout the season."
