Sergio Perez already in 'summer break' mode and 'too far behind Max Verstappen,' says Red Bull's advisor after he finished P11 at 2022 F1 Hungarian GP qualifying

After an underwhelming qualifying session for Sergio Perez ahead of the 2022 Hungarian Grand Prix, Red Bull team advisor Helmut Marko criticized the driver for seemingly already getting into "summer break" mode.

After having his Q2 lap time wrongly deleted in Saturday's qualifying, which was soon reinstated by race control, the Red Bull driver still failed to make it to Q3. With this, he is set to start the upcoming race in eleventh place, behind his teammate Max Verstappen in P10.

Speaking about Sergio Perez's overall performance over the last few races, Marko told Sky Sports Germany:

“He is too far behind Max Verstappen at the moment. He was struggling in all the practice sessions, so we will have to sit down with each other. The summer break hasn’t started yet, but he already seems to be in that mode. We need to speak to him and he needs to stick to Verstappen’s set-ups and be there from first practice.’’

Emphasizing that some of the issues with Perez's pace, which were seemingly eradicated after last season, have once again resurfaced, Marko added:

“If you’re a second slower in first free practice, you don’t catch up. We saw that in some races last year as well. We managed to eradicate that then, so we have to make sure we counter that again.’’

70 points currently separate Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez in the Driver Standings. What is more of interest to Red Bull, however, is the fact that the 32-year-old has a seven-point deficit to Charles Leclerc, who stands in second place in the standings.

The chances of closing the gap to the Ferrari driver before heading into the summer break are rather slim, given the difficulty in overtaking at the Hungaroring. Leclerc will be starting the race in the second row, behind his teammate Carlos Sainz and George Russell who took his maiden pole on Saturday.

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Sergio Perez hopeful of a strong race despite underwhelming qualifying in Hungary

Sergio Perez admitted that he was unable to make it to Q3 despite having a significant pace advantage after being blocked by Kevin Magnussen's Haas in his final flying lap.

In a post-qualifying media interaction, the Red Bull driver spoke about his struggles during the session after his lap-time was reinstated and said:

“It was very unfortunate with the track limits and then I got it back. And then going into Turn 2, I found Kevin [Magnussen] right on the line. I had to avoid him and went very deep in corner, lost a couple of tenths, which I couldn’t recover later on. It will not change anything for me. Hopefully we are able to come back strong tomorrow.”

Historically, this has not been the easiest track to overtake on, but Red Bull has plenty on the line when it comes to maintaining its lead in the Constructor Standings.