Perez pleased with his Monte Carlo recovery

Sergio Perez capitalised on his unique ability to keep his tyres last as he managed to jump five places at Monaco on Sunday, but was just shy of a podium finish.

After a disappointing ninth in qualifying on Saturday, the Mexican ran longer than the rest before his first pit-stop, putting in a string of excellent laps in cleaner air to jump Lewis Hamilton, Pierre Gasly and Sebastian Vettel in the battle for fifth.

Setting his sights on a first podium since joining Red Bull over the winter, Perez eased towards Lando Norris in third spot but such is the case with the circuit around Monaco, passing proved an impossibility.

Perez's fourth place though, along with team-mate Max Verstappen's win, sees Red Bull take the lead in the constructor's championship standings.

"The team did a fantastic job on strategy and the communication throughout the race was excellent," said Perez afterwards. "We saved the tyres and used them when we needed to which was key and we did two or three qualifying laps to jump the queue of cars to get fourth.

"I was closing on Lando but he had good tyres left and I never really had a clear chance at him.

"I was thinking of the long game and getting the points which is important for the team. The cars are just so wide these days but it is what it is. We managed to minimise the damage from Saturday and I think once I’m more comfortable with the car in qualifying, we’ll be in serious contention and fighting for victories as I’m happy and pretty much there on Sundays.”