Force India’s Sergio Pérez says he considered withdrawing from the Malaysian Grand Prix due to illness, before going on to record sixth position.
Pérez suffered from illness throughout the weekend at Sepang and qualified in ninth position, before moving up to sixth place on the opening lap.
Pérez ultimately maintained his position, having passed Stoffel Vandoorne but been overhauled by Sebastian Vettel, and admitted he contemplated pulling out.
“It was probably the hardest race of my career, on a weekend in which I feared I would need to give up,” he said.
“It is an amazing result just to make it to the finish: I just kept going out of willingness to do it and I have to thank the doctors for helping me out.
“Having a good start was the key to my race and so was passing Vandoorne during the first few laps.
“After that, I was able to manage my race and it was all pretty uneventful. We were able to extend the first stint and manage our tyres well.
“I was only under pressure from Vettel, but that was not really my fight.
“We scored some more important points for the team and I am happy to come home with a good result after such a difficult weekend. I hope to be back to full fitness in Japan.”
Force India team-mate Esteban Ocon started from sixth position but made contact with Felipe Massa at the start and lost further time when he spun after colliding with Carlos Sainz Jr.
The latter incident dropped Ocon to 12th place, from where he recovered to round out the top 10.
“It was a disappointing race and I’m not feeling very happy,” said Ocon.
“The contact on lap one with Massa gave me a puncture and ruined my race.
“I had to pit on lap two and drive almost the entire race on one set of Soft tyres.
“The other bad moment of my race happened when I was overtaking Sainz and he crashed into me.
“I shouldn’t have been fighting him, but I was out of position because of the puncture and trying to recover.
“I don’t know what he did, but he just locked up and went straight into me, causing me to spin.”
