Brundle: Perez should 'accept the genius' of Verstappen

Ex-Formula 1 driver Martin Brundle believes that Sergio Perez needs to "accept the genius" of Max Verstappen in order to achieve more success in Formula 1.

Verstappen stormed into a 39-point lead in the Drivers' Championship with a victory in Monaco, whilst teammate Perez failed to make progress from the back of the grid after a qualifying crash.

The Mexican was furious with his mistake and, after failing to recover in the race due to collisions, ended up lapped and testing wet tyres for Verstappen.

On the qualifying crash, Brundle wrote in his column for Sky Sports F1: "It is still easy enough to crash of course and the driver who suffered most was last year's winner and street circuit specialist Sergio Perez.

"Early into the first part of qualifying he simply arrived too quickly into Saint Devote Turn One and smashed into the outside barrier.

"He'd likely been a little distracted by an Alpine getting out of his way by diving into the long pit-lane exit, but whatever the reason it put a huge dent in his Red Bull car and his championship battle with team-mate Max Verstappen."

Verstappen has finished inside the top two at every Grand Prix this season, whilst Perez has dropped points from qualifying errors in Australia, and now Monaco.

Formula 1 pundit Brundle believes that Perez should "maximise" the areas of his racing that can be controlled, and "make sure" he finishes runner-up when Verstappen is excelling.

"[Verstappen] now leads team-mate Perez by 39 points which is approaching the equivalent of a win and a third place in hand," added Brundle.

"What I learned when I was in direct competition with Ayrton Senna, Michael Schumacher and Mika Hakkinen and I simply couldn't match their raw speed and gifted talents was to maximise everything that was in my control such as car race set-up, starts, in laps, out laps, traffic management and so on.

"Sergio would be better off making sure he finishes second and accepting the genius of Verstappen, and then maximise the days when he delivers his own special magic such as Singapore last year and Baku this season."