“It was a pleasure. We fought hard and fair, I felt like that kid again who used to enjoy karting so much,” said Pérez afterwards. “My heart rate went up quite a bit.”
Pérez had bad luck at the start of the race. He had a touché with Leclerc’s Ferrari and had to make a pit stop after a few laps for a new front wing. From last place, the Mexican started a great catch-up race in his Red Bull, finishing in second place behind Spanish race winner Carlos Sainz.
,,I had to work for it and I didn’t want to give up. Those last laps were great, it had been a long time since I had such a good fight with Lewis and Charles,” said Pérez, the number 2 in the World Cup standings. He is 34 points less than his teammate Max Verstappen, who had to settle for seventh place in the Great Britain Grand Prix due to damage to the floor of his Red Bull.
Hamilton had enjoyed as much as Pérez in the closing laps. The Mercedes Briton finished third, landing on the podium for the tenth time in a row in his home race. More than 140,000 Britons saw him duel with Pérez and Leclerc in the final rounds. ,,I’m very grateful that I was able to compete in the front, because that was a while ago. It reminded me of my karting days. The fact that we drove so close together lap after lap and were able to overtake is Formula 1 at its best.”
The seven-time world champion even took the lead for a while and that was the first time this season. ,,It wasn’t uncomfortable, of course I’ve led a lot of rounds in my career. But we are now making real progress with the Mercedes, the car shows its potential. I hope there will be more good things to come this season.”