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Sergio Perez believes that he could have had a chance at winning the Bahrain Grand Prix from his teammate if it wasn't for Charles Leclerc's strategic outperformance.
Checo finished the Bahrain GP on P2 after being ruled out by Max Verstappen, who had a whopping 11.9-second gap over the Mexican. Though it seems almost impossible to cover that gap, Checo is confident that he would have had a shot at it but it couldn't happen because Charles Leclerc had a much better first stint. He told the media, which included Sportskeeda,
"Yeah, that was really the case, missing out to Charles on that first stint. It was really difficult to get by him, he had the new tyres so you could see the difference on that first stint."
Charles Leclerc started the race in P3, right behind Sergio Perez. However, because he had fresh tires and Perez was on the used tires, he was able to get past the Red Bull right in the first corner at the start of the race.
Perez admitted that it was getting difficult for him to attack to overtake because it was essential to keep in mind the health of the tires he was on.
"And as soon as I was getting a bit closer to him, trying to attack him earlier on, I got deg and destroyed my tyres, so I had to be really patient and get my way through it."
Sergio Perez admits he had no chance of fighting Verstappen for the win later in the race
Sergio Perez was in P2 after Leclerc had to retire from the race because of an electrical issue, however, he could still get any closer to challenging his teammate for a victory. By the time both he and Leclerc were in their second stint, Max Verstappen was already far ahead in the race and built a major gap.
"Once I did, I was able to drive some fast laps and my tyres and on the second stint were in better shape than his and I was able to get through. But it was just too late."
"It was just a few laps too many, too late, and that put us quite behind Max."
Sergio Perez revealed that once the Ferrari ahead of him was out of the race, both he and Verstappen tried and maintained their gap while Fernando Alonso completed the podium in Bahrain. He, too, had no real chance of challenging Checo as he was over 38 seconds behind Verstappen and 27 seconds behind his teammate.
