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Sergio Perez doubled his praise of rookie driver Franco Colapinto and reckoned the young Argentine “didn’t put a foot wrong” in his defence at the Singapore Grand Prix.
Colapinto once again impressed in Singapore with a brave move into Turn 1, which ensured he got up to ninth place on the opening lap. He then held his own in defence against Perez, which stifled the Mexican driver’s progress in the first 28 laps.
Over the radio, Perez put aside his frustration to speak highly of Colapinto, stating “he’s very good, difficult to pass” as the Mexican remained in the FW46’s wheel-tracks.
Perez took the opportunity to pit at the end of the 28th tour and, although Williams responded to bring Colapinto in a lap later, the offset was enough for Perez to just undercut his fellow Latin American.
Colapinto followed Perez home by 1.6 seconds at the flag, having been unable to close to within DRS range towards the end as Perez was in turn stuck behind Nico Hulkenberg.
“He did a fantastic race,” Perez added at the end of the race.
“He didn’t put a foot wrong. It was very difficult to keep up with him at the time and it was just a difficult race.
“In the end we managed to do the undercut on him, but that was the only one we could do.”
Franco Colapinto, Williams FW46, Sergio Perez, Red Bull Racing RB20
Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images
Colapinto was grateful for Perez’s comments, more so given that he spent his childhood supporting the Red Bull driver while watching F1.
This did not mask Colapinto’s disappointment not to manage points, which he put down to going too long on the medium tyres which made him susceptible to getting undercut.
“I was trying to push. Checo is a super nice guy and I grew up watching him racing in F1, waking up early in Argentina, and supporting him as a guy from Mexico, this was the closest to us.
“It was very nice to support him when I was little. And now it’s even better to be racing against him.
“It’s a pity to not have finished with points after a good effort. But yeah, it is what it is. Also decent race, but we made some mistakes that didn’t let us finish in the points.
“When you do everything perfect…we were not perfect today, and I think that’s why we are not in the points.”
Additional reporting by Jonathan Noble and Mark Mann-Bryans
