Juan Pablo Montoya advises Sergio Perez on how to approach the race weekend in Silverstone 

Former F1 driver Juan Pablo Montoya advised Sergio Perez to stop trying so hard to match the pace of his teammate Max Verstappen in the qualifying sessions.

The Red Bull driver has struggled to get into the Q3 session in the last four races and has paid the penalty in the main races as he is mostly doing a recovery job during the race on Sunday and subsequently losing points to his championship rival and teammate Verstappen.

While previewing the British GP with VegasInsider, Montoya advised Sergio Perez:

“The number one question mark is, what will happen with Checo Perez? Is Checo going to pull it together and get a lap in qualifying? It gets to a point where he needs to stop trying so hard because the car is fast enough. It's okay if you make it to Q3 being sixth or seventh and being six-tenths off your teammate. And then in Q3 you try and see what happens. He just needs to see what happens and put a banker lap for the top five and then give it his all.”

The Colombian added:

“Is he going to be on the podium? I´m going to say 90% yes. Is he going to be second? I´m not so sure. I see him finishing at number three and then Ferrari, in my opinion, will most likely take the number two spot. And then everybody else will be right there.”

Former world champion on how Sergio Perez gave unwanted motivation to Max Verstappen

1997 F1 world champion Jacques Villeneuve stated that Sergio Perez claiming that he can challenge Max Verstappen for the championship gave the Dutch driver unwanted motivation this season.

While speaking to Gazzetta dello Sport, the Canadian said:

“Sergio started to drop in performance soon after he said: ‘Now I will fight to win the Championship.’ In my opinion, that statement gave Verstappen an extra boost – and he, on the other hand, started to suffer and make mistakes.

Villeneuve added:

“I know that every driver has to understand what his level is. And Sergio is not at Max’s level. Yes, he is capable of going as fast as him, but not over the whole season. If you say something like that, then you can’t make mistakes like he did on Friday in qualifying [in Austria]. No, everyone who is not at that excellent level.”

It will be interesting to see if Sergio Perez can challenge his teammate during the upcoming Silverstone weekend and in the remaining races this season. The Mexican currently trails his teammate by 81 points in the Drivers Standings.