Red Bull Motorsport Adviser Helmut Marko believes Sergio Perez needs to "get a grip" on his qualifying performances after failing to qualify in the top 10 for the fifth race in a row. Perez will start 16th at the British Grand Prix having fallen victim to tyre temperature issues on a drying track after remaining stationary at the pit exit for almost 10 minutes under red flag conditions. It was the latest chapter in a list of failures for the Mexican, who has now all but lost any hope of challenging Red Bull teammate Max Verstappen for the F1 Drivers' title. "Perez needs to get a grip on his qualifications," Marko told Sky Sport . "Usually, he drives good races, but he's now lucky again: you can easily catch up here. "It has always been a weakness of his. It just happens too often and he has to work on that. We're also going to work on it, because if one driver is in front and the other 16th, something isn't right." On the potential to replace Perez, Marko added: "He is second in the standings and delivers good races, which distinguishes him from Nyck de Vries. At the moment there is no need to take action. There is also no one available to replace him."
Tricky qualifying conditions nearly caught out Red Bull
Marko believes the tricky changing conditions during qualifying nearly caught Red Bull out, as they faced a threat from McLaren for pole. He revealed the team debated whether it should do another run with Verstappen in Q3, before electing to stick a fresh set of Soft tyres for his final attempt. "They were tough conditions and they were decisions that had to be made in seconds: at what point do you go out on the track? It was also difficult for Max and at the moments when we thought it was enough, it turned out not to be the case," he explained. "In Q3 that was also the case and we thought the first attempt was enough for pole. Thank goodness we did a second run, but with these constantly changing conditions it was not easy to get the tires up to temperature. You shouldn't take too much risk, but still drive at the limit. That was a tricky challenge."
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