Perez, who certified third behind pole sitter Lando Norris and Purple Bull teammate Max Verstappen, overcame a poor begin to declare third place in Saturday’s dash race at Interlagos.
The Mexican misplaced out to George Russell’s Mercedes off the road and was overtaken by Lewis Hamilton at Flip 4, however fought his manner again previous each on his method to taking a much-needed outcome that broke his current run of torrid kind.
It got here every week after Perez suffered a heartbreaking first-lap retirement at his house race in Mexico Metropolis, which solely additional mounted the stress on him as he appears to retain his Purple Bull seat for 2024.
“For Checo, a very nice confidence enhance, a very robust drive,” Horner advised Sky.
“Coming again previous each Mercedes with some good racing, good tempo and good factors for him right now.”
Horner added: “He’ll take so much out of that. He’s beginning a bit out of place due to the yellow flag [in Friday qualifying] tomorrow, however we all know he has nice tempo.”
Perez admitted his “horrible begin” made his life more durable and in the end prevented him from difficult Norris for second place.
“It was not a straightforward one, I had a horrible begin, ended up dropping place to George. After which one other place to Lewis into Flip 4,” he defined.
“From then on, I used to be combating. I had to make use of my tyres so much. After which I believe I paid the worth in direction of the tip.
“General, it has been a superb day. Good factors there. However sadly, I believe with out the beginning we may have been so much additional up.
“The issue I had was that I could not handle. I needed to push. And we all know that this place could be very delicate for that. It ended up costing us.”
The outcome, coupled with Lewis Hamilton’s slide right down to seventh, sees Perez prolong his benefit over the seven-time world champion to 24 factors of their battle to safe runner-up spot within the drivers’ standings.
Perez will begin ninth, 4 locations behind Hamilton, in Sunday’s major grand prix.
“Clearly, it is necessary,” he mentioned about rising the hole. “However it’s extra necessary to maintain that momentum going now, we had an excellent day total.
“Hopefully tomorrow, which is the principle race, we will consolidate with a powerful outcome.”