Red Bull Motorsport Advisor Helmut Marko has urged Sergio Perez to 'wake up' from his F1 World Championship dream and recover his form. The Mexican again struggled in qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix and will start 11th on the grid, his session marred by a trip to the gravel late in Q2. Perez's woe follows a crash in Q1 for the Monaco Grand Prix, which saw him leave the principality pointless and his title hopes hanging by a thread. Teammate Max Verstappen secured a dominant pole to rub salt into Perez's wounds and Marko has called for an urgent turnaround. "With Sergio, things have not been going well since Monte Carlo. He needs to concentrate more on racing, not on the title. I hope he recovers himself," Marko told Sky Deutschland. "The whole weekend it was already the case that he was three-to-five-tenths slower." Nyck de Vries was reportedly given a 'yellow card' by Marko and he added: "It's now the second consecutive weekend [with issues]. "That's a different situation and he believed in his World Championship dream. Checo is getting a relatively hard wake-up call now, but I'm sure he'll pick himself up again."
Podium optimistic
Despite Red Bull's pace - that saw Verstappen rise from ninth to first in Miami, Marko has played down Perez's chances. "The podium I think is very optimistic," he insisted. "If it gets hot then tyre wear will be higher, but a three-stop is possible. Then it is possible that if he overtakes some cars he could still finish third, but that will be difficult."
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