Sergio Perez says Force India team-mate Esteban Ocon was never close enough to "make a move", which is why he chose not to let the Frenchman past despite being called to do so by his team on multiple occasions.
Perez and Ocon were fourth and fifth respectively during the closing stages of the race, hunting down Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo for the final podium spot, whilst the Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel quickly caught up to the battle.
Ocon, who felt he was quicker and could therefore challenge Ricciardo for third, requested the team swap him and Perez, a request they agreed to and requested of the Mexican driver. However Perez refused, insisting a small mistake from Ricciardo would mean he would have a chance to pass.
"I think the main reason for me was I pretty much spent the whole race behind Daniel, in his DRS window. The whole race I was really close to him, all I needed form Daniel was a single mistake, a single lock-up – he drove a perfect race so he didn’t do a single mistake.
"When the team asked me to let him [Ocon] by we were going to laps some cars so I asked them to give me the chance, because probably we get some traffic and it’s all I needed. I was always on his DRS, at no point was I more than 1.5-2s behind – the only point when I was behind when I was saving brakes.
"Esteban had 30 or 40 laps behind me on fresher tyres and he was never close enough to make a move."
Perez believes Force India's eventual fifth and sixth, after Vettel passed the pair, was where they deserved to finish.
"In the end we finished where we deserved to finish. I knew the Ferrari was coming behind quite quick, and I was struggling for tyre grip I was thinking the podium could be mine. The strategy for me wasn’t ideal today but I tried my best."
Ocon believes he had the pace to pass Ricciardo, but refused to be drawn on Perez's refusal to move over, simply responding that his "time will come".
"It was a great race all in all, just a shame I couldn’t have a chance to go and pass Ricciardo. I think I had the pace by far to do it. The podium was possible today but that’s it, that’s racing sometimes, so we have to discuss what happened in the debriefing room."
