Cape Town - Sergio Perez believes he was the superior race driver in the 2018 season, despite regularly losing out to Esteban Ocon in qualifying.

Out of the 21 races, Ocon out-qualified Perez 16 times, with the average gap at the end of the year reading -0.448s in favour of the Mercedes junior driver.

However, Perez finished 12 points ahead of his teammate in the driver's standings, with the Mexican securing eighth place in the Driver's Championship.

Speaking via F1 Today, Perez said: "I think in qualifying he probably had the upper hand although the gap between us in qualifying is less than a tenth.

"He was more often in front in quali than myself. But I think the gap in the race is much bigger than qualifying.

"In the race I thought I did the bigger difference, always on the pace, the pace was a bit stronger in the race.

"We were very close again but I think he was just a little bit better in qualifying and I was quite a bit better in the race."

Perez will have a new teammate for 2019 in the form of young Canadian Lance Stroll, whose father Lawrence Stroll led a consortium which purchased the bankrupt Force India team in August, before re-branding them as Racing Point.

Ocon meanwhile, was left without a drive despite talk of him replacing Stroll at Williams for 2019, with Robert Kubica and George Russell ultimately forming their line-up.