Marko: Perez 'needs to get a grip' on qualifying woes

Helmut Marko says Sergio Perez needs to get a grip on his lacklustre qualifying form following the Mexican's failure at Silverstone to reach Q3 for the fifth consecutive race.

Perez's qualifying woes started in Monaco back in May where he crashed in Q1, but they extended to Spain, Canada, Austria and into this weekend at Silverstone.

Perez lost out at the outset in Saturday's frantic Q1, where track evolution and a late red flag saw drivers pay the price for an ill-timed run.

"We struggled with the weather," admitted Perez. "The changing conditions made things a lot trickier, so we ended up having a poor qualifying.

"I think these conditions is where I struggle most with the car."

• Read also: Perez ponders latest qualifying disappointment

But Marko was unconvinced by the Red Bull driver's arguments, and insisted Perez really needs to up his game on Saturday afternoons.

"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."

Perez's setbacks are inevitably sustaining the speculation regarding his future with Red Bull. But Marko once again dismissed the prospect of a change at the Milton Keynes-based outfit.

"He is second in the standings and delivers good races, which distinguishes him from Nyck de Vries," said Marko.

"At the moment there is no need to take action. There is also no one available to replace him."

At Silverstone, Max Verstappen conquered his seventh pole of the season, but Marko admitted that McLaren's remarkable speed coupled with the changing track conditions in qualifying had put the Dutchman's achievement in jeopardy.

"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?" the Austrian explained.

"It was also difficult for Max and at the moments when we thought it was enough, it turned out not to be the case.

"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.

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