Martin Brundle delivers Sergio Perez verdict during Belgian GP amid uncertain Red Bull future

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Sergio Perez nicked the fastest lap of the race at the Belgian Grand Prix on what could have been his final outing in the RB20.

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner would have had high hopes for Sergio Perez before the Belgian Grand Prix.

Perez arrived at Spa off the back of a torrid run of form both in qualifying and Sunday’s races.

He recovered well in Hungary from 16^th to finish 7^th and followed that up with his best qualifying performance in months at Spa.

Max Verstappen’s grid penalty handed Perez a spot on the front row of the grid alongside Charles Leclerc.

However, he quickly found himself losing a position to Lewis Hamilton on the first lap after failing to get the cleanest getaway and things started to get worse from there.

Commentating on the race for (28/7 3:13 pm) Sky Sports F1, former driver Martin Brundle and David Croft were watching Perez’s progress closely.

Perez faces a meeting with Red Bull on Monday where his immediate future will be discussed.

His job was to impress Horner, Helmut Marko and the rest of the Red Bull hierarchy.

Unfortunately, it’s hard to imagine his performance did enough to guarantee his place on the grid at Zandvoort after the summer break.

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Martin Brundle delivers far from ‘stellar’ Sergio Perez verdict during Belgian Grand Prix

Perez was losing time to all of his rivals during the race and found himself up against eventual winner George Russell after the first round of pit stops.

The Mercedes driver eventually found his way past the Mexican and before he could hold up Verstappen he was forced to pit.

It was far from the ideal strategy but Red Bull had to act to protect their lead driver with Lando Norris rapidly chasing him after his poor start.

Reflecting on his battle with Carlos Sainz after his second stop, Croft said: “Carlos Sainz meanwhile, who led this race at one stage, started the race on the hard tyre and went longer than everyone else is now catching Sergio Perez in the battle for 7^th place.

“Red Bull with McLaren in 3^rd place and Lando Norris in 6^th, they need Perez to score as many points as he possibly can in the championship. The lead only 51 points going into this race with a lot to come in the second half of the season.”

Brundle added: “It’s not actually been a stellar race for Sergio has it? He’s now 21 seconds off the lead having started on the front row of the grid.

“He hasn’t had any specific problems, they did pit him very early for the second stop.”

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Sergio Perez in real danger of losing his Red Bull seat

It’s never good when a team already have a plan in place to move a driver on if things reach a point of no return.

Unfortunately for Perez, that’s exactly the threat he currently faces.

Red Bull inserted performance clauses in Perez’s contract that allow them to move him on during the summer break as he’s failed to close the gap to Verstappen to 100 points.

Not only that, but they have a trio of drivers who will be chomping at the bit to step straight up into his Red Bull seat at the next race.

Daniel Ricciardo is expected to replace Perez should he lose his seat.

The Australian narrowly missed out on points at Spa, while Tsunoda failed to recover from the back of the grid after picking up a 60-place penalty before qualifying for changing parts on his car.