Sergio Pérez praised Fernando Alonso after their thrilling battle for third at the São Paulo Grand Prix on Sunday and said the contest would not have gone down the same with most drivers on the current Formula One grid.
Pérez lost a drag race to the finish line with Alonso at Interlagos, finishing just 0.05s behind the Aston Martin driver.
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After a tight but clean battle in the closing stages Pérez got by on the penultimate lap, only for Alonso to pull off a spectacular overtake to recapture a spot on the podium.
Alonso, world champion in 2005 and 2006, is widely regarded as one of the greatest drivers in F1’s modern era and Pérez felt the nature of the fight demonstrated why.
“I have to say well done to Fernando, because it was great fight. Very fair racing,” Pérez said on Sunday evening.
“And that’s really good, because how hard we race each other with always a lot of room, I think with very few drivers you can do this on the grid.
“You know that Fernando will always try to play any game, but he will always be fair. It was great racing. I think whoever got the podium was well deserved, and he got it.”
F1 posted a photo on Instagram of Pérez and Alonso embracing in the television interview pen after the race, congratulating each other on the fight.
After the race, Alonso said he felt that he had lost the place on the podium when Perez finally got past him.
Source: www.espn.com