"He's dropped the ball too many times" - F1 pundit feels Sergio Perez's mishaps in qualifying have happened far too often

F1 pundit Scott Mitchell-Malm feels Sergio Perez is two full victories behind Red Bull teammate Max Verstappen in the title fight after "dropping the ball too many times" in the first eight races of the season.

It was another disappointing weekend for the Mexican driver at the Spanish GP. He failed to qualify in the top 10 in the qualifying, making yet another mistake after his previous setbacks in Melbourne and Monaco.

Sergio Perez did have a really good recovery race but he could not close the gap with George Russell to get P3.

While appearing on The Race podcast, Mitchell-Malm said in this regard:

"Two full race victories clear is Verstappen. You say that 'It doesn't look like that Perez will sustain the title', but he already hasn't. He's dropped the ball too many times, is it three times in seven Grand Prix he's failed to get to Q3? And twice out in Q1 because of mistakes. Three qualifying sessions have had significant mistakes.

"It's not even simple when we say 'Your peaks aren't the problem'. But Verstappeb's bad days are finishing a very close second to Perez and he has a load more good days than bad days. Even this year, Perez's bad days are linked to that way of getting the lap time out and trying to live with Vetsappen."

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"We have ultimately paid the price for a bad qualifying" - Sergio Perez

Sergio Perez was disappointed with his P4 finish and blamed his mistake in qualifying for another underwhelming weekend.

"I am disappointed with today, we have ultimately paid the price for a bad qualifying," the Mexican said as per F1.com. "We did have a good strategy but, looking at where we started from, there was only so much that we could do. I think P3 was possible but, if we wanted more points, then I would have had to take more risks on lap one and potentially compromise my race. George went really deep on that first lap, gaining a lot of positions but we took it easier to ensure we had more of a clean start."

"This weekend, in general, has been a step back and we weren’t quite there, but there are plenty of things we can do better. All in all, we brought home twelve points today and I think, looking forward, Canada should be a strong race for us. Everything is pretty close right now so that will be an interesting one,” Perez added.

Sergio Perez will look to bounce back in Canada in a couple of weeks' time and get his title bid back on track.