His Red Bull teammate and championship leader, Max Verstappen, was just two laps away from back-to-back wins before a tyre failure brought his race to a grinding halt, and the race being red flagged.

Earlier in the race the Canadian driver of Aston Martin, Lance Stroll, suffered the exact same fate as Verstappen.

At the restart, with just two laps to be raced, the reigning world champion, Lewis Hamilton, locked up  and the first turn and this brought bid for points to an end.

Perez just made it past the checked flagged before he was instructed to power down due to mechanical issues which nearly saw him having to retire as well.

Perez revealed that as a team they were lucky to finish with one car, but they will take the victory.

“We were close to retire the car but luckily we managed to finish the race and it was really quite difficult all the way till the end.

“It was a big thing. The team asked me basically not to weave, I couldn't warm up the tyres at the restart, so we were just trying to get to the end. 

“It was only two laps to go and it was our race to be lost, because we were in the lead. 

“It was everything to lose and not much to win because we were on pole. We just had to do two laps, but getting that start right was a big thing.”

The four-time world champion, Sebastian Vettel, finished in second with Pierre Gasly in third.

Verstappen does, however, retain his lead at the top of the drivers standings due to Hamilton not finishing in the points.

@MorganPiek OFM Sport