Sergio Perez followed up his strong qualifying performance in Suzuka with a runner up finish in the 2024 Japanese Grand Prix, recovering from early race tyre issues.
Perez was only 0.066s behind Max Verstappen's pole time in qualifying in Japan, and 24 hours later, he delivered a strong race, taking the chequered flag behind his victorious teammate, delivering Red Bull Racing's third one-two finish in the 2024 Formula 1 season.
However, it was not an easy one, as early on in the race, the track temperatures were the highest over the weekend in Japan, which meant tyre degradation was worse, and it wasn't until the conditions became cloudy later that the track temperature dropped allowing Perez to recover his second place after losing it to McLaren's Lando Norris who undercut the #11 Red Bull.
"It was a good day for the Team," Perez said in Red Bull's race report. "We had good pace today, we just struggled with the degradation initially and didn't get enough out of the medium due to the balance and track temperature.
"We suffered a little on the first stint, it compromised our race a little too much and with Lando pitting early. The second stint was better, but we had to get through a lot of traffic and that made our life a lot harder. On the hard we were back to our best, but things were a little out of sync by then," he explained.
The positive aspect was the ability to recover the race
However, the Mexican was buoyed by his ability to recover from the early set back, he added: "What is positive and an improvement is that when we have issues like on the first stint, we are able to solve them during the race, which is something we lacked last year.
"We are in a good place and performing at a very nice level, we just need to keep progressing. My confidence is coming back and the momentum should be with me for the coming races.
If I am able to have such a consistent weekend in Suzuka it can only be positive moving forward," an optimistic Perez concluded.
Red Bull team boss Christian Horner hailed Perez's Japanese weekend, he said: "Checo has had a very strong agenda here.
"His qualifying yesterday was good. Better than he has managed in his career. And then his racing was fantastic. He came through the field and was very strong and maintained his pace," the Briton added.
Sunday's result in Suzuka means that Perez now is second in the 2024 F1 Constructors' Championship with 64 points, 13 less than his teammate Verstappen who leads the standings after four races this season.
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