Helmut Marko hails Sergio Perez for “impeccable” Bahrain GP drive

Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko has described Sergio Perez’s performance at the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix as “impeccable”.

After qualifying fifth, Perez recovered to finish second to hand Red Bull their first 1-2 finish since the Italian Grand Prix in September.

It was a strong drive from Perez, who got past Carlos Sainz at the start before overtaking Charles Leclerc and George Russell.

While Perez did finish over 20 seconds behind teammate Max Verstappen, finishing behind the Dutchman should be the main objective if he wants to remain at Red Bull in 2025.

As quoted by Total Motorsport, Marko said after the race: “It wouldn’t have made any sense to push the pace. He had Sainz under control and there was no chance of moving forward.

“Perez therefore did absolutely the right thing tactically and never pushed. To put it another way, he  could have driven faster, but there was no reason to. It was an impeccable performance.”

Perez was embroiled in a close fight with the two Ferraris and Russell in the early phase of the race.

The Mexican felt the earlier use of DRS - with it now available to drivers after just one lap - had an impact on the racing.

“Yeah, I think starting from P5, it's always nice to make good progress,” he explained. “There were a lot of battles on track, which around this place, you just go into a very different strategy once that happens. You are sliding a lot more in traffic.

“And I think overall, it's a very good team result. Yeah, it was quite close with the Ferraris, with the Mercs early on. We were fighting with the DRS, obviously, being a lap earlier. It just changes a few things out there.”