It is an open secret now that Sergio Perez has been under a lot of scrutiny. Despite the dominant RB-19 under him, he has not managed to finish on the podium as much as he’d like. His qualifying has been underwhelming, and the 33-year-old’s had to make up for it with spectacular racecraft on Sunday.

The Las Vegas GP was exactly like that for Perez. His qualifying, again, did not go that well for him. The Mexican driver had to start the race in P12, thanks to him not doing a second lap in the later parts of Q2. However, he did not let that deter him and finished P3 in the Sin City. This was more than P3 for him, however, as the #11 has finally managed to claim P2 in the championship as well.

Sergio Perez could have just saved his Red Bull seat

Thanks to an incident between George Russell and Max Verstappen, a timely safety car meant that Checo could safely pit from the lead of the race. Despite starting from P11, he pitted later than everyone ahead of him, giving him this unique advantage. Combine that with Mercedes’ poor straight-line speed, Perez managed to clinch P3 in the race, and as a result, P2 in the championship.

Speaking in the F1 Nation Podcast, Natalie Pinkham reveals how much this would mean for Checo, going forward. “He’s gotta be a bit down, because he thought he was in for a 1-2 in the race.”  However, she opines, Perez should look at the silver lining, and he will do so after he gets some time away from the race. Natalie continues “He came back from a difficult qualifying, P11 up to the podium. It’s a great achievement. He has secured 1-2 in the championship. That mattered to him a huge amount.“

She further goes into detail on the driver’s psychology, especially as Lewis Hamilton seemed poised to secure P2. “When Lewis looked like he was on the charge to take it from him, he was worried, he was worried for his future. I think today was a real marker in the sand for him.” 

Moreover, Red Bull had stated that they would want Perez to get that P2 for achieving the team’s first-ever 1-2 in the drivers’ championship. Thus, many pundits speculated that the Mexican driver may lose his seat if he lost the 2nd place to Hamilton. The Las Vegas podium will probably put all these narratives to rest.

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Perez had some luck too with several happenings in the Las Vegas race. Despite the lucky safety car that helped him, he did not have it all easy.

Difficult Vegas race for Perez

For Perez, the race definitely was not easy. Despite qualifying P12, he inherited P11, thanks to the 10-place grid penalty for Sainz. However, Lap 1 shenanigans sent him almost immediately to the back of the field. The Alonso spin was more than enough to stall the progress from any semblance of a good start that he got.

However, he did not let that deter him. He pits early on to the hards and makes the tires work for a significant amount of time, hoping and waiting for a safety car. When George Russell turned into his teammate, the debris was just enough for the safety car to come back on, giving him more than enough time to safely pit, the race lead was his to keep.

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However, after an amazing overtake from Leclerc, followed soon by a hungry Verstappen on charge, he was not able to finish in the top two steps of the podium. While this may definitely not be the best weekend ever for him, I’m sure the weekend could have gone much much worse for him.