01/10/2017
NEWS STORY
Sahara Force India scored nine points in the Malaysian Grand Prix as Sergio Perez raced to sixth place ahead of Esteban Ocon in tenth.
Sergio Perez: "It was probably the hardest race of my career, on a weekend in which I feared I would need to give up. It is an amazing result just to make it to the finish: I just kept going out of willingness to do it and I have to thank the doctors for helping me out. Having a good start was the key to my race and so was passing Vandoorne during the first few laps. After that, I was able to manage my race and it was all pretty uneventful. We were able to extend the first stint and manage our tyres well. I was only under pressure from Vettel, but that was not really my fight. We scored some more important points for the team and I am happy to come home with a good result after such a difficult weekend. I hope to be back to full fitness in Japan."
Esteban Ocon: "It was a disappointing race and I'm not feeling very happy. The contact on lap one [in turn two] with Massa gave me a puncture and ruined my race. I had to pit on lap two and drive almost the entire race on one set of soft tyres. When you consider the condition of the tyres at the end of the race, we did well to score the final point. The other bad moment of my race happened when I was overtaking [Carlos] Sainz and he crashed into me. I shouldn't have been fighting him, but I was out of position because of the puncture and trying to recover. I don't know what he did, but he just locked up and went straight into me, causing me to spin. So it's a race to forget for me because the pace of the car was strong and we couldn't maximise it."
Robert Fernley: "Congratulations to the whole team for another double points finish, which further strengthens our fourth place in the championship. Sergio drove a pretty much perfect race, despite being unwell, and sixth place is a wonderful reward for his perseverance over the weekend. On the other side of the garage, things just didn't work out for Esteban. The puncture on lap one compromised his race and to recover to tenth place was a fantastic effort. Being hit by the Toro Rosso of Sainz was costly, but the real challenge was managing the soft tyres over 53 laps. We take a lot of positives away from this weekend, especially the pace of the car in qualifying and the race. We've made some important steps forward with the car recently, which should allow us to keep scoring good points in all the remaining races."