Perez was running just ahead of Valtteri Bottas when he came ♏in for his first stop on Lap 26.

A sticky left-rear wheel nut cost him a couple of seconds in theꦕ pit lane, allowing the🐼 Finn to overcut him for third place.

Red Bull gamble🧔d with a late second stop, utilising Perez’s spare set of medium tyres but it wasn’t enough as he ran out of laps.

“Yeah it was close, I think that was the right thing to do,” Perez said.  “We were catching him up but we had very similar tyres. I think it was good to try it, unfortunately I got hurt a bit by the traffic there and just hal꧋f a second is all we nee𒀰ded at the end. A bit of a shame, unfortunately today we had a slow stop.

“The boys have been incredible all year long, having the best stops,⛄ today unfortunately that was very costly. But we are a team aꦰnd we will come back stronger.”

Team boss Christian Horner felt Perez had the race to run with Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton at😼 the front, had he been able to clear Lando Norris on the opening laꦜp.

“I thought he drove a v🎐ery good race,” Horner added. “I think that it's a shame that he didn't quite manage to clear Lando on the first lap, he got held a little bit behind Lewis I think on the run down to Turn 4 And I 🔴think without that he would have been with that lead group.

“When we pitted him, it should have been comfortable for him to retain track position to Bottas but unfortunat🔯ely we had a problem with a left rear. And it cost him about two seconds and despite a stunning out-lap we just lost track position so at that point we then converted onto a two-stop. And I think another lap or so he would have regained that third place.”