‘Checo’ Pérez the second Mexican to win a Grand Prix in F1
Sergio Pérez won the Sakhir Grand Prix to take the first victory of his career as a Formula 1 driver. His teammate from Racing Point, Lance Stroll, finished in third.
50 years later a Mexican pilot wins a Grand Prix in Formula 1, after Sergio Pérez from Racing Point took the victory at the Sakhir Grand Prix on Sunday night. Pérez took the lead when George Russell, who was replacing Lewis Hamilton, suffered a puncture on his Mercedes and had to make an extra pit-stop leaving first place to Pérez.
The last time a Mexican driver won a GP was Pedro Rodríguez in 1970. On Sunday night Sergio Pérez fought his way through the pack and capitalized on the mistakes from both Mercedes drivers. ‘Checo’ was in 18th place at one point of the race and with this victory he moves up to fourth place in the driver standings with 125 points.
Chaotic race
George Russell looked like he was going to win on his debut with Mercedes, but the team made a horrible mistake during the pit-stop with 25 laps to go. Mercedes brought both drivers in at the same time and Russell’s stop was slow as they put on the wrong set of tyres, while Vottas took 27 seconds as the mechanics couldn’t put his left front tyre correctly.
Besides all the chaos that happened at Sakhir, Pérez stayed calm to obtain his victory in his 190th race. The Racing Point driver finished with 10.5 seconds of Renault’s Estaban Ocon and 11.9 seconds from teammate Lance Stroll who finished third.
“I am speechless. I hope I am not dreaming. I want to keep going. If I am not on the grid next year, I will be in 2022,” said Pérez after the race and about not having a seat for the next campaign.
There has been a strong rumor that Red Bull Racing will make an offer to join Max Verstappen for the 2021 campaign, but so far nothing has been confirmed. If that doesn’t happen then Sergio Pérez has said he will take a sabbatical.