Verstappen offers Perez crucial title battle advice

Max Verstappen has advised Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez to focus on himself after a nightmarish two-race swing allowed the Dutchman to take control in the F1 title battle.

The duo had been locked in a fight over the championship lead after the opening five rounds of the year with Perez taking two race wins and Verstappen the other three with the Milton Keynes-based outfit dominating proceedings.

But a nightmarish two-race swing in Monaco and Spain, where Perez twice failed to reach Q3 in qualifying before scoring with only a fourth-place finish at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, has created a 53-point chasm in the title fight.

Red Bull Motorsport Advisor Helmut Marko has since urged Perez to stop 'dreaming', with the insinuation that recent mistakes have been born from a push to reach Verstappen's level.

'I don't know what's going on in his head'

Asked about Perez's difficulties ahead of the Canadian Grand Prix, two-time World Champion Verstappen told media, including RacingNews365.com: "I found it difficult to comment on that because I don't know what's going on in his head.

"But I learned from a young age that it is always better to focus on yourself and do the best you can because all the other things are out of your control anyway.

"So there is no point trying to focus on that, that is also how I approach it as well.

"There are always some races in a season which don't go to plan and you have a few setbacks, but it is always important to stay focused on the job and really try to work with the car and the engineers around it to get the best out of it."