Sergio Perez underlines class as he reflects on rotten Saudi Arabian GP misfortune

Spare a thought for Sergio Perez this Sunday evening who had a potential third career Grand Prix victory taken away from him through no fault of his own at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

The Mexican put his Red Bull car on pole for the first time ever on Saturday night and led away at lights out on Sunday evening, with him building up a nice little cushion ahead of Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen.

Indeed, things were going really well for Perez who was driving superbly and he looked to have the race under control, before the racing gods intervened.

Ferrari called Charles Leclerc in to pit and so Red Bull made the same call to Perez to cover that move but, at the last moment, the Scuderia opted to stay out once they saw the Mexican had come in.

That may not have cost him in normal conditions but, moments later, the Williams of Nicholas Latifi was in the wall and a Safety Car was called, allowing the likes of Leclerc, Verstappen and Carlos Sainz to take to the pits and change tyres whilst the rest of the field was well off of racing speed.

That said, then, Perez naturally lost out and eventually filtered into third place, though he would then have to give another place to Sainz to wind up in fourth, after a safety car line infringement.

From there, Perez couldn’t get back in front of the three drivers ahead of him in the pack, and he would come home to finish fourth.

Post-race, though, he underlined his class with him accepting that it was just one of those things that happen in motor racing, and he took a moment to congratulate his team-mate Verstappen, who took the victory: