Pérez scored his first top 5 with McLaren

If Sergio Pérez had scored three podiums with Sauber F1 Team, the Mexican is suffering from the poor performances of MP4-28 this season. The new recruit of McLaren is having a difficult end to the season, even receiving criticism from his boss Martin Whitmarsh who recently admitted that he was hoping for better performances from Checo. After having finished in the points only seven times, the driver of the Woking team finally signed a convincing result with a fifth place after having notably carried out a superb overtaking on Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Räikkönen on the long straight of the Buddh International Circuit.

“Unlike the last two or three weekends, I was finally able to have a clean race without being hit by bad luck”, underlines the McLaren driver who signs his best result of the year. “I had a lot of pressure on my shoulders and it’s always nice to succeed with pressure. I'm really satisfied. It was fantastic to overtake Kimi and Lewis in one move. I simply braked as late as possible before turn 4 and then set about keeping Lewis behind me. »

Sergio Pérez is regaining confidence three events from the end of the season while the extension of his contract with McLaren has still not been formalized. “This season has been tough, but this result is a really motivating promising sign for the last three races where we will do our best to achieve more good results. Finally, I would like to extend my congratulations to Sebastian (Hag). He has proven in recent years that he is a great champion. His season has been superb and what he has achieved is incredible. I hope now that we will be able to fight against him next year. »

His teammate Jenson Button was less successful as he only took 14th place after suffering a puncture following contact on the first lap with Fernando Alonso.

Discover the analysis of the Indian Grand Prix carried out by our special correspondents in issue 1933 of AUTOhebdo, available from tomorrow in digital version on all platforms, and from Wednesday on newsstands.