Sergio Pérez says seventh place was the best result possible for Force India at the 2017 Formula 1 season opener in Australia.
The Mexican driver lined up 10th on the grid but made decisive passes on the two Toro Rosso cars to move up the order.
He also benefitted from Romain Grosjean’s retirement to jump up a place, ending the race in seventh.
Pérez admitted the Silverstone-based team got the maximum from the Australian GP, feeling the team did the best job possible.
“I am very pleased with the result and I don’t believe there is anything we could have done better,” he said.
“Seventh place was the most we could achieve and the team had to make all the right calls to get this result.
“We had the correct strategy and we managed the tyres well to bring the points home. We still had to pull a few big moves on Kvyat and Sainz, even though it was not easy to overtake, but once I was in clean air I felt I was in a very strong position.”
Pérez was also complimentary about driving F1’s new generation of cars in race trim, adding: “Driving these cars is so much fun: you can push a lot harder than in the past and I was doing my fastest laps towards the end of the race.
“We know we still need to improve this car and there is more performance to come, but this is a positive start to our season and we can be happy.”
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