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Why Red Bull sacrificed Perez points for fastest lap

Not much went right for Sergio Perez at Silverstone. The Mexican retired from Sprint Qualifying on Saturday, while he finished outside the points in Sunday's race after a strategic decision by Red Bull.

Sergio Perez believes he could finished the British GP in seventh, however the Mexican ultimately came home outside the top 10 as Red Bull decided to take a point from Lewis Hamilton instead. The Mexican was running 10th in the closing stages before being called into the pits for new tyres. Red Bull opted to do so in hopes that Perez would set the fastest lap of the race, which he did, and prevent Lewis Hamilton from earning an extra world championship point to go along with his victory. Perez, who didn't hide his disappointment with how his weekend went after retiring from the Sprint Qualifying on Saturday, confirmed the decision after the race. “I’m very disappointed with my weekend and my performance," Perez stated via a Red Bull press release. "I wasn’t able to make as much progress as expected and found myself in a very difficult position with the tyres. "As soon as we were in the DRS train it was impossible to overtake people. I think seventh was possible today, with a couple more laps I think I could have got Lance and Fernando but in the end for strategic reasons we decided to stop to take the fastest lap." With Max Verstappen retiring after a first lap collision with Hamilton, Red Bull will look to bounce back when F1 travels to Hungary for the final race before the summer break. "It’s a weekend for us to forget and we lost a lot of ground in the Championship, we need to regroup, work hard and come back as strong as possible in Hungary," Perez concluded.

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