Sergio Perez has praised his Force India team after securing what he described as a "maximum" result at the Japanese Grand Prix, finishing in seventh place.
The Mexican had made it into the final part of qualifying in tricky conditions and after the Suzuka circuit was hit by a localised rain shower during the final session, he had to settle for 10th in the session which became ninth on the grid after team-mate Esteban Ocon's penalty for his FP3 infraction.
Throughout the race, he was able to make up places and felt he could have had undercut Haas' Romain Grosjean if he was not held up by the Sauber of Charles Leclerc in the pit stop window.
When the Virtual Safety Car had been recalled after marshals had to recover Leclerc's stricken Sauber at Turn 9, Perez admits when he saw the opportunity to close to Grosjean, he went for the move without hesitation.
"We had a good result – the best I could realistically hope to achieve," said Perez. "After yesterday’s poor qualifying we made up a lot of positions and I feel we really got the maximum from the race.
"Our pace was strong and the team delivered a great strategy. We knew we had to be aggressive to beat the Haas and we nearly managed to undercut Grosjean at the pit-stop, but I lost a bit of time battling with Leclerc and I just fell short.
"At the VSC restart I managed to get really close to Grosjean and when I saw an opportunity I went for it. I am so excited about our performance today.
"We had to push hard and make some good overtakes: it was a fantastic race."
Ocon also praised the team for their efforts in giving him a fast car all weekend long, enabling him to passes on his opponents and have fun throughout the race.
The Mercedes-backed driver believes the race strategy paid off for them and left him in a position to pass the Grosjean in the final laps of the race, but felt he wasn't a chance to get the pass done.
"The team scored some good points, but I’m not totally happy because our final result was dictated by the penalty," added the Frenchman.
"We have shown great speed all weekend – as the fourth quickest team – but if we don’t start higher up it’s difficult to show it in the race. There were some fun moments today and I had to make a lot of overtaking moves.
"When you had fresh tyres there was a big pace advantage and our strategy paid off in the end. I was close to catching Grosjean during the final few laps, but there wasn’t a chance to make a move."
