Helmut Marko has put pressure on Sergio Perez after his early exit from Hungarian Grand Prix qualifying, accusing the Red Bull driver of being in "summer break mode". After a poor qualifying day for Red Bull, Max Verstappen and Perez will start the Hungarian GP from 10th and 11th respectively. With Verstappen suffering from power loss issues, Red Bull would normally turn to Perez to mount a challenge in his place. However, the Mexican had already been eliminated from qualifying, having only been 11th fastest in Q2. Perez had his own qualifying dramas to deal with, including a bizarre incident of having a lap reinstated after it was originally deleted for a track limits violation. Despite that, he still struggled to set a clean lap time that was good enough to progress to the final part of qualifying.
Marko: We have to help Perez catch up to Verstappen
Red Bull Motorsport Advisor Marko had previously criticised Perez for allowing George Russell to overtake after the Virtual Safety Car at French GP . Marko didn't hold back after Hungarian GP qualifying, and gave a damning verdict on Perez's qualifying performance, and deficit to Verstappen, in Budapest. "He is too far behind Max Verstappen at the moment," Marko told Sky Sport Germany. "He was struggling in all the practice sessions, so we will have to sit down with each other. "The summer break hasn't started yet, but he already seems to be in that mode. "We need to speak to him and he needs to stick to Verstappen's set-ups and be there from first practice." Marko suggested work was previously done in 2021 to help Perez get closer to Verstappen's pace, and that similar help might be required. He added: "If you're a second slower in first free practice, you don't catch up. We saw that in some races last year as well. "We managed to eradicate that then, so we have to make sure we counter that again."
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