Perez: This is only my third race for the team and it was a really, really good one

The last time Sergio Perez stood on the podium was at the 2012 Italian Grand Prix, since then his career took a nose-dive and included a brief tenure at McLaren last year from which he was unfairly ousted, but on a bright night in Bahrain the Mexican reversed his fortunes, with an impressive drive, and gave Force India their first podium since the 2009 Belgian Grand Prix. He spoke afterwards;

What’s it like being back on the podium again? You’re enjoying this aren’t you?
Sergio Perez: Yeah, I mean, it’s been a while since my last podium. This podium is very special for me guys, I told you already on the radio. This is only my third race for the team and it was a really, really good one. The strategy was really close for us. It was looking a lot easier until the safety car came because when the safety car came in we were going on two stops so the people behind, the Red Bulls, they were on there stops but we managed to keep it just to the end; one more lap I couldn’t manage to keep him back.

It’s been quite a tough period for you since the last time you were at the podium towards the end of 2012. What does this mean to you today?
SP: It means a lot. It’s a very special podium for myself. As you say, I had a really tough time, my time in McLaren where I was basically quite far… I never have a chance to fight for a podium in all my year. Really, coming into Force India and being able to, only in my third race, to be able to qualify fourth and then straight away being able to fight for the podium was a great feeling. An amazing podium. The Safety Car makes things really hard for me. It was looking quite comfortable before the Safety Car came in and once it came it was really difficult also to switch the Prime tyre on. It was extremely hard as we had a Safety Car for a long period. So I arrive into Turn One after the restart with my team-mate… just couldn’t stop the car, locked the front wheels. Tried my best to keep the position and we managed and then we had the Red Bull coming really quick at the end. Fortunately we managed to keep the podium.