Red Bull desperately needs Perez 'to get up there'

Christian Horner says Red Bull "desperately" needs Sergio Perez to contribute big points to the team's tally in upcoming races.

Perez's track record of late shows just three top-ten finishes in the last six races, with the Mexican's last F1 podium dating all the way back to the French Grand Prix in June.

Overall, Perez has scored less than half of the number of points than his title contending teammate Max Verstappen.

Horner grants that there were perhaps mitigating circumstances surrounding a few of his driver's poor races recently, but the Red Bull team boss insists the time has come for Perez to get going once again.

• Read also: Perez conscious of need to 'put it together' for Red Bull

"I think he scored 16 points in the last six races, which is a combination of bad luck and other misfortune," Horner said.

"We desperately need him to get up there in the remaining races.

"The last two races he could have been on the podium. We obviously had the track limit issue in Monza. He had a poor pit-stop in Sochi and then, of course, the tyre choice that we were on proved to be the wrong one on that lap.

"So things could have gone a different way for him, but I'm sure that will sort itself out over the remaining seven races."

Perez enjoyed a relatively good start to his Turkish Grand Prix weekend, outpacing Verstappen in Friday's second session.

"The amount of grip surprised me today," he said after his day of running. "It is more like a standard track out there now, but it is still very challenging because the grip is not consistent.

"Sometimes on the entrance to the corner you have less grip than on the exit, so as a driver it is difficult to adjust to that aspect of this track.

"Mercedes look strong here but hopefully overnight we are able to chip away a couple of tenths and be in the mix for tomorrow.

"It is all about compromise because if you try and get the ideal balance for qualifying over one lap then you compromise the long run pace a bit, which is important here because overtaking is relatively easy.

"There is the potential of rain for qualifying tomorrow, but we will be well prepared, whatever the weather."

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