Perez powers to sprint win

Sergio Perez has made up for his recent bad luck by dominating this morning’s sprint race in Silverstone, blasting past the front row starters and walking away with the race to finish 15 seconds ahead of Oliver Turvey and Dani Clos.

The Mexican made a sharp getaway when the lights went out to tear past Christian Vietoris, who struggled to get off the line, and slot himself just behind the iSport duo of Turvey and Davide Valsecchi, with Clos and Pastor Maldonado making the most of the Sam Bird sized gap on the grid (the Briton was out with mechanical gremlins) to also dispatch the German into turn one with Jules Bianchi slotting in behind him.

Perez looked fast from the outset, and the inevitable moves came quickly: he sliced by Valsecchi on lap 3 and took the lead one lap later, and the clean track in front of him gave the Mexican the chance to add to his points total with fastest lap shortly thereafter.

By this stage Valsecchi was already struggling to hold on: Clos and Maldonado shadowed his every move for a few laps before running through the Italian like a train on lap 10. From there it was a case of waiting to see if the iSport pair could hold on for points, as both drivers spent the rest of the race looking into their mirrors.

And after 21 laps it was over: Perez was greeted by the chequered flag to take a long overdue second win of the season, and the next man across the line was Turvey, with the Briton just holding on against enormous pressure from Clos and Maldonado: the trio were split by just one second. Bianchi was the next man to cross the line for fifth place, having saved his tyres enough to dispose Vietoris with four laps to go and Valsecchi two laps later: the Italian just held on from the German for one point and sixth.

The win has brought Perez back into the championship running: he is now fourth with 30 points, one behind Bianchi and seven off Clos in second, but the trio will need to push hard in Hockenheim to eat into Maldonado’s lead, as the Venezuelan is looking calm out front with 56 points.