Perez: Racing Point executed 'perfect' weekend in Mexico

Sergio Perez has described his Mexican Grand Prix as "perfect", insisting Racing Point extracted the maximum from both Saturday and Sunday.

In qualifying, Perez failed to make it into Q3 but qualified 11th, meaning he was the first of the drivers to have free choice of tyres to start the race,

Perez opted for the medium compound and took them 20 laps into the race before switching to the hard tyres for the end of the race, crossing the line in seventh place as the highest midfield driver.

"We were perfect, not just today, also yesterday," Perez said. "We’ve done a tremendous job as a team, so we can be very pleased with the strategy that we did as a team.

"I think today, we executed a perfect race. We pushed when we needed to. We didn’t really have the pace of the Renaults, McLarens, Toro Rossos, so I’m very happy with the results."

Ricciardo battle was 'very hard'

In the final handful of laps, Perez cam under pressure from the Renault of Daniel Ricciardo, who made his one and only pit stop late into the race after starting on the hard compound.

Ricciardo attempted an overtaking move at Turn 1 on Perez, however the Australian out-braked himself and was forced to skip across the grass.

"It was very hard, all the way to the end," Perez said of his battle with Ricciardo. "I knew he was very strong on the primes, so he came very close with a big tyre delta. I knew it was going to be very hard.

"I tried to save a bit of tyres towards the end, so maybe that helped me.

"I knew he was going to go [for an overtake], but I thought ‘He doesn’t have a Red Bull anymore to do that manoeuvre’. It was quite on the limit. I broke quite late, but it was good I gave him some room to avoid contact."