Sergio Perez has proved Formula One fans right by beating Lewis Hamilton to P2 in the World Drivers’ Championship standings. The Red Bull star will finish 2023 behind triumphant team-mate Max Verstappen in the overall leaderboard after securing the runner-up position at the Las Vegas Grand Prix.
It comes after Express Sport readers voted to say that Hamilton will overtake Perez and finish second to Verstappen. A huge 61 per cent of fans believed that he would beat the Mercedes star in in the final months of the season.
That is despite Perez suffering a drastic dip in form midway through the year. His woes were compounded by an extremely early exit at his home race in October.
But the 33-year-old has battled back and has now condemned Hamilton to an unwanted personal record. The seven-time world champion has now gone three years without a title, with Verstappen’s dominance meaning he has been unable to even win a race since 2021.
It is the first time Hamilton has embarked on such an unwanted barren run since 2013, when he endured the last of four years without winning the Drivers’ Championship. That, though, came much earlier in his career when there was less expectation on Hamilton to win titles.
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“It’s a bit of mixed feelings. It was really not nice to lose a place to Charles there in the end,” Perez said after pipping Hamilton to P2 despite finishing third behind Verstappen and Charles Leclerc in Las Vegas.
He added: “It started really well, fighting for the championship. But then, I think in Barcelona, we had such a dominant car, but I just couldn’t set it up properly. It was just getting out of my hands, the confidence was going down.
“So just to manage to come back and really put together a strong result… I think to be able to constantly be fighting at the top. I think that really is the highlight of my year.”
Meanwhile, Hamilton fears that Red Bull’s dominance could continue until 2026, when the next regulation changes are introduced. He pointed out that teams who develop a huge margin over their rivals are able to develop the next season’s car earlier.
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“When we were winning world championships, we could stop early and start developing next year’s car so we always had a head start. That’s why I’ve been saying we should probably figure out a way to stop that so it continues to happen decade after decade,” Hamilton said this week.
“You’ve got Ferrari who won for such a period of time and then Mercedes. Now Red Bull have their period of time.
“They could be going until 2026 with this, they could be that far ahead, or maybe the other teams will figure it out. Hopefully, we will figure it out and close that gap.”
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