Perez: Red Bull was right to gamble with late second pit stop in Styrian F1 GP

Perez was running just ahead of Valtteri Bottas when he came in for his first stop on Lap 26.

A sticky left-rear wheel nut cost him a couple of seconds in the pit lane, allowing the Finn to overcut him for third place.

Red Bull gambled with a late second stop, utilising Perez’s spare set of medium tyres but it wasn’t enough as he ran out of laps.

“Yeah it was close, I think that was the right thing to do,” Perez said.  “We were catching him up but we had very similar tyres. I think it was good to try it, unfortunately I got hurt a bit by the traffic there and just half a second is all we needed at the end. A bit of a shame, unfortunately today we had a slow stop.

“The boys have been incredible all year long, having the best stops, today unfortunately that was very costly. But we are a team and we will come back stronger.”

Team boss Christian Horner felt Perez had the race to run with Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton at the front, had he been able to clear Lando Norris on the opening lap.

“I thought he drove a very good race,” Horner added. “I think that it's a shame that he didn't quite manage to clear Lando on the first lap, he got held a little bit behind Lewis I think on the run down to Turn 4 And I think without that he would have been with that lead group.

“When we pitted him, it should have been comfortable for him to retain track position to Bottas but unfortunately we had a problem with a left rear. And it cost him about two seconds and despite a stunning out-lap we just lost track position so at that point we then converted onto a two-stop. And I think another lap or so he would have regained that third place.”