As Daniel Ricciardo shared a 'shoey' on the Imola podium with Lewis Hamilton, Sergio Perez was left to ponder what might have been.

Having extended his opening stint on new mediums, the Mexican was leading the midfield and looking good for the 'best of the rest' epithet.

However, when the safety car was deployed following Max Verstappen's tyre failure, Perez was called in for fresh softs. However, Daniel Ricciardo and Charles Leclerc, who were trailing the Mexican stayed out.

At the restart Perez was passed by Daniil Kvyat, who had also pitted for fresh rubber, and who went on to pass Leclerc also, and while he managed to overhaul Alex Albon, the Racing Point driver finished in sixth.

"Looking at it, it didn't make sense at the time," said Perez after the race when asked about the decision to pit. "The call was very late, but it's always easy to make the right decision after the race.

"Overtaking today was extremely difficult," he continued, "but I haven't spoken to the team yet so they might have some reasons on it.

"It's just a painful day," he sighed, "we had the podium in the pocket. It's hard to digest, they are as disappointed as I am right now. We are a team. We lose and also win together.

"In hindsight, it was the wrong call today. We basically gave the podium to Ricciardo."

"Sergio was well placed to finish on the podium after Max retired, but, with the benefit of hindsight, we shouldn't have pitted and instead tried staying out on the hard tyre," admitted team boss, Otmar Szafnauer.

"We chose to pit because we were concerned it would be difficult to switch on the hard tyres after the safety car," he added. "Those cars behind could do the opposite and were able to stay out on their very old tyres, gaining track position.

"Unfortunately, George Russell's crash resulted in an extended safety car and gave Sergio even less laps to use his tyre advantage. In the end, he had to settle for sixth place."

"It was a fantastic day," said Perez, "from all the negatives we can take a lot of positives, that first stint was tremendous. A great strategy, a great call for the team. We put ourselves in a position to get that podium, but it is a painful day, and also a painful day in the championship."

Indeed, Ricciardo's podium finish, along with a double points result for McLaren, saw Racing Point slip from third to fifth in the team standings.

Check out our Sunday gallery from Imola, here.

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READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by kenji, 02/11/2020 10:42

"Perez is right...it's always far easier to make the right decisions in hindsight but i do feel as though there is a certain 'opaqueness' in the explanations. I do happen to think that it was a simple mistake insofar as RP believed that all the close runners would change to soft for the dash to the line! That was the fatal flaw in their judgement. 10 laps...possibly but with only 6 laps track position was absolute king.Even with all of the runners on new softs there was no guarantee that Perez could of pulled it off. Close, yes of course but nothing is guaranteed in life let alone F1."

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Perez rues senseless pit stop

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