Perez reveals tyre concern amid late Hamilton charge

Sergio Perez felt he had Lewis Hamilton "under control" during theMercedes driver's late surge for a Formula 1 podium in theHungarian Grand Prix. In the closing stages at the Hungaroring,Perez had called off his pursuit of Lando Norris in second asfourth-placed Hamilton began to rapidly close in on the Red Bulldriver. The seven-time champion whittled the gap to Perez down tojust over one second, but was never in a position to attempt anovertake, with Perez claiming just his second podium visit sincethe Miami Grand Prix as teammate Max Verstappen won his seventhstraight race. And Perez was confident that Hamilton did not pose aserious threat. Perez dismisses Hamilton threat "It was quitedifficult because we were going through the backmarkers, Lando andmyself," Perez told media including RacingNews365. "I was chasingLando, but, going offline, I had two very bad laps just cleaning upmy tyres, it was when Lewis was coming up [behind me]. "Butluckily, they cleaned up and I think towards the end I had himunder control. "We were doing sort of similar [times] or a fewtenths off, but not enough to be overtaken, so it was good." Perezwas forced into a race of aggression by virtue of his ninth placein qualifying, passing the likes of both Hamilton and Oscar Piastrifor position on-track during his recovery drive, with his mindsetheading into the 70-lap affair being aggressive. "I just tried tomaximise it, try to try to get the biggest amount of pointspossible," he said. "I was looking forward to getting onto thepodium. So I knew that I had to do some overtaking there."