Force India’s Sergio Perez says his start at the German Grand Prix was the worst of his Formula 1 career.
The Mexican driver started the race in ninth place but a poor launch from the grid and first lap meant he fell to 16th.
His team had to change strategy and Perez managed to fight his way back up the order, sneaking into the points with 10th place.
“It’s safe to say today was the worst start in my whole career,” he said after the race. “I had a lot of wheelspin at the start and dropped back to P16 – so it was a long fight back through the pack.
“The team had to think on their feet and tweak the strategy to get me back into a competitive position. Degradation was quite high, especially when following other cars, and I spent a lot of time in the middle of the race fighting with Fernando [Alonso].
“In the last few laps I was running out of tyres, but I knew Fernando was in a similar situation, so when I saw an opportunity I knew I had to take it. I honestly didn’t think we would score points after Turn 1, but we did it.”
His team-mate Nico Hulkenberg said seventh place was the best result possible at the Hockenheimring, adding: “It feels good to get the maximum from our race and score some important points.
“The team did a great job with the strategy because we went into the race believing a two-stopper was possible, but then made an early decision to switch to three stops. It was definitely the right way to go and allowed me to take seventh place in the final few laps.
“The tyre degradation was very high so most of the race was about managing the tyres. It was also quite a lonely and straightforward race because my main fight was against Bottas and we were running different strategies.”
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