Sergio Perez believes his intermediate tyres would ๊have “exploded” had he needed to complete one more🌄 lap in Formula 1’s Turkish Grand Prix.

The Mexican held off a late attack from the Ferrari duo to cling onto finish second in Sunday’s wet-weather race around a slippery Istanbul Park circuit and claim his f🐓irst podium of the season.

Perez stayed out on a set of intermediate tyres for 48 laps, while Racing Point pitted h𓆉is teammate Lance Stꦬroll for a fresh set of intermediates with 22 laps to go as he plummeted from first to ninth.

"I told my team on the radio, I th▨ink one more la🐬p on those tyres and they would have exploded," Perez said.

"The vibrations were extremely bad towards the end. But I think it also madܫe that race, looking after them in the beginning [and] towards the end with drying ⛦conditions.

"The team did🅺 a fantastic job in terms of strategy reading the race. I think Lewis today was extremely strong, and towards the end we died, but we managed to get a go🐷od result.”

Perez came under pressure from Red Bull’s Max Verstappen until the Dutchman spun while attempting a pass at🍌 Turn 10, while he also had to overcome a late challenge from the lead Ferrari of Charles Leclerc to seal second, his best finish since the 2012 Italian Grand Prix🌱 at Monza.

Explaining his battle with Verstappen, P🀅erez said: “I couldn't see anything on⛎ my mirrors.

"My mirrors were full of fog, so my engineer was basically telling me the gaps and so on. And th🧸en all of the sudden, I saw Max like running wide and he disappeared.

"The other one was with Charles. I wasn't aware that he was so close to me. So in the final lap it was pretty good battle w🃏ith him. He overtook me into Turnဣ 10, and then I overtook him back into 12. It was a chaotic race, but a strong result for us.”

The result marked Perez’s best finish for the Racing Point team he 💙will leave at the end of the season after the Silverstone squad opted to instead sign Sebastian Vettel for 2021.

Asked if the result felt like the perfect leaving present, Perez replied: "I think as alwaysඣ you know you have to be delivering weekend after weekend.

🐈"You are as good as your last race, so it's important to finish on a high. The rest is not in my🍸 hands."