Sergio Perez disagrees with Christian Horner’s claim after low-scoring races

Sergio Perez has disagreed with Christian Horner’s claim that there is “less pressure” on him now he has fallen behind Max Verstappen in the Drivers’ standings.

Perez failed to finish in the points in the Monaco Grand Prix after crashing out of qualifying, before falling out of Q2 in Spain the following week and recovering to finish fourth.

At the front however, team-mate Verstappen won both races and has now opened up a healthy 53-point lead at the top of the World Championship, leaving the Mexican with more than two race victories’ worth of points to make up if he is to haul himself back into title contention.

He had won two of the opening five races of the season in equal machinery to Verstappen, but after going somewhat off the boil by his standards his team principal said there is now “less pressure” on his shoulders as the gap has opened up at the top of the standings.

“I think if you look at the points now there’s a big split between the two of them, and I think if anything that should take pressure off him,” Horner told Sky F1 after the Spanish Grand Prix.

“He has nothing to lose now and I think he just needs to relax, he can breathe out and just drive like we know he’s capable of, like he did in Azerbaijan and some of the early races this year.

“And I think today was a good recovery from him and I think that’ll give him confidence as we head to Montreal.”

But as Formula 1 arrives at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, the Red Bull driver is looking to start from scratch again in his own mind and recapture his form from the early part of the year.

“I basically want to restart, go again,” Perez said when asked about his mindset heading into the weekend.

“Basically, Monaco was all down to me, I had a really bad mistake. But then in Barcelona in the qualifying again, it was tricky with the damp conditions we didn’t manage to have a good quali and then we paid the price on Sunday.

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“So I think I’m looking forward to get back on the form we had in the early season.”

But when asked about his team principal’s belief that there may be less pressure on him now, he disagreed.

“I don’t think so,” he responded when asked if he agreed with Horner’s claim.

“I think we always have to deliver to our maximum and we just have to make sure we will deliver.

“We have a great car and we should be having a lot of podiums, wins and so on from now until the end of the year.

“So we can see that the competition is getting closer and closer all the time, but we will try our best.”