Big score for Racing Point despite Perez penalty

Sergio Perez branded his five-second penalty for allegedly ignoring blue flags as Lewis Hamilton came to lap him “unfair”, but nonetheless he helped Racing Point to its best result of the year on his return as the team left Barcelona with 22 points.

Racing Point decided to split its strategies, putting Lance Stroll on a two-stopper and Perez on one stop, and the Mexican was able to execute his strategy to near-perfection. He started from fourth on soft-compound tyres and moved onto mediums, and spent the race’s second half in fourth before his penalty.

From fifth on the grid, Stroll made a strong start to steal past his team-mate and Valtteri Bottas into the first two corners, rising to third. Bottas’s start from the front had been sluggish compared to the cars around him, allowing Max Verstappen and Stroll to go past, but the Canadian couldn’t hold off the faster Mercedes of Bottas, who took third on lap five.

Stroll’s second stint, on the medium tyres, only lasted 15 laps before he took another set of used softs, and he kept the life in them to clear a one-stopping Sebastian

Vettel for fifth with 10 laps remaining.

Perez’s penalty handed Stroll an opportunity to move up a place, if he could carve into Perez’s advantage, and he duly did so. He was classified 2.74 seconds ahead of his team-mate.