Sergio Perez returned Force India to the podium in Sochi after a stellar drive and a slice of fortune on the final lap of the Russian Grand Prix.
Perez elevated himself into podium contention by deciding to pit at the second safety car period, which meant he was leading the drivers who had stopped. When the leaders pitted Perez had risen to second position, though he quickly dropped behind the Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel.
However Perez held firm for 40 laps on the soft tyre, with Daniel Ricciardo's Red Bull aiding his cause by holding Valtteri Bottas and Kimi Raikkonen for a large chunk of the second stint. Though Bottas and Raikkonen finally got past Perez on the penultimate lap, the pair collided at Turn 4 and allowed Perez back into third.
Perez admits he had been happy to settle for fifth after seeing Bottas and Raikkonen go by.
"It just feels great to be back with these boys," Perez said. "I've been enjoying so much my time with them. One lap before the end it seemed like everything went away from us. At that point I was really unhappy with myself because many things come to your mind. But then on my last lap I was like, 'I gave it my all and there's no more I could do', I mean I've done plenty of laps with my tyres so I had massive degradation on my front tyres especially. So in the last lap when it came it was amazing and it's very nice to give my second podium to this team."
It gave Force India its first podium since the 2014 Bahrain Grand Prix, which was also scored by Perez, and the third of its tenure in Formula One. Perez says a strategic decision to manage his tyres after the second safety car restart paid dividends.
"At the restart I was behind Felipe [Massa] and Nasr, just stuck there and couldn't get them so I decided to just save my tyres, together with the team, to look after them for the end of the race. It worked really well but we lost the podium one lap from the end, it was very difficult to hold them back, Valtteri and Raikkonen. At the stage my tyres were I couldn't brake very hard, very late because I was racing on a flat spot, my tyres hadn't retired from race so there was a certain level of risk that I was able to take and I thought if its not a podium let's come back with points.
"On the last lap they had the contact and it was very good to come back and give a second podium to the team. I think we're going into great momentum and it's great news I'm staying with the team and hopefully we can retain it until the end of the year."