F1 News: Sergio Perez Given New Lease Of Life After Hungarian GP Podium

Sergio Perez has ended his difficult streak with a P3 finish at the Hungarian Grand Prix.

The Mexican driver has failed to get into Q3 of qualifying in the last five race weekends, prior to Hungary, with the pressure beginning to mount on him to turn things around. The dip in performance was only heightened by his teammate Max Verstappen's incredible success in the RB19.

On top of this, further pressure was added to the Red Bull driver when Daniel Ricciardo was confirmed to replace Nyck de Vries at AlphaTauri with immediate effect. Many believe that this was a move from the Austrian team to gear the Australian driver up to take Perez's spot alongside Verstappen should he not turn things around.

After starting from ninth position on the grid, Perez managed to secure the third spot on the podium as well as being voted driver of the day. He reflected on his performance during his post-race interview with former champion Nico Rosberg. He explained:

"We got close to P2. Unfortunately we got through a lot of backmarkers. The track was unbelievably dirty off line, so in the last laps I had some pick-up going through the backmarkers, and that meant that I lost a few seconds. I recovered towards the end but it was just too late.

"I think overall it was a great strategy by the team and we managed to have an excellent result. I think this sort of performance, these sort of days do help, and from now on I just look forward to basically being on the podium every single weekend, so let’s keep it up,"

There is just one more race before the summer break with the Belgian Grand Prix set to take place next weekend.