Perez: I should have three Baku podiums

Sergio Perez believes that he should have more than two Baku podiums to his name.

The Mexican driver bagged a duo of third-place finishes in 2016 and 2018 but missed out on a strong result in 2017 after making contact with his former teammate Esteban Ocon.

The chaotic race that year could have seen Force India take a double podium finish, however Perez retired from the event while Ocon recovered the cross the line in P6.

"It’s a crazy number to believe I’ve got more podiums than any other driver here,” Perez said, as every other driver who has finished in the top three has done so just once.

“We’ve been perfect for two years. We should have three podiums here, unfortunately we had a little contact between teammates and that ruined the chances for the team.

“But apart from that it’s been a fantastic venue and it’s always good racing here. It’s so important to stay out of trouble. I think it’s the hardest thing around here, not to make any mistakes.”

Heading into the weekend, Perez was confident that the circuit would play to the team's strengths compared to Shanghai last time out.

The 29-year-old says that work must be done in order for Racing Point to reach the optimal point and maximise the result on Saturday and Sunday.

"I was not as confident as other years straight away." he said. "I think the car is not giving me that confidence. We saw what happened to Lance. The car, it’s difficult to put it on the edge. So we have to try to come up with something and hopefully we can improve a lot.”

“I think other cars are very competitive around here. We see Toro Rosso, the McLarens, it’s not going to be easy to be in Q3 but we will try our best.”