Pérez praises Alonso after ‘great fight’ for 3rd in Brazil

Sergio Pérez congratulated Fernando Alonso after his thrilling battle for third place at the São Paulo Grand Prix on Sunday and said the competition would not have gone the same way with most of the drivers on the current Formula 1 grid.

Pérez lost a drag race to the finish line with Alonso at Interlagos, finishing just 0.05 seconds behind the Aston Martin driver.

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After a close but clean battle in the closing stages, Pérez pulled away on the penultimate lap, only for Alonso to pull off a spectacular overtake to regain a podium spot.

Alonso, world champion in 2005 and 2006, is widely regarded as one of the greatest drivers of 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 a great fight. A very fair race,” Pérez said on Sunday evening.

“And it’s really good, because the way we compete with still a lot of space, I think with very few drivers you can do that on the grid.

“You know Fernando will always try to play any game, but he will always be fair. It was a great race. I think whoever got the podium was well deserved, and he got it.”

F1 posted a photo on Instagram of Pérez and Alonso kissing in the post-race TV interview, congratulating each other on the fight.

After the race, Alonso said he felt like he had lost his podium spot when Perez finally passed him.