Perez’s F1 title fighting talk: ‘I’ve matched Max since the beginning’ 

The Mexican endured a calamitous weekend in Monaco as he crashed in qualifying and finished outside of the points, enabling race-winner Verstappen to enjoy a 25-point swing over him. 

Verstappen’s fourth victory in six races saw him extend his championship lead to 39 points over Perez, who has claimed the other two grand prix wins this year.

Despite the large deficit he now faces, Perez is convinced he can still beat Verstappen and clinch his maiden world championship. 

"I've been a match to Max since the beginning of the season, in one way or another," Perez said. "It is sometimes better, sometimes worse and it's where I believe you have to be.

"I think being teammates with Max is probably the toughest thing you can have because he is a driver who has the most form of all, and I do believe it's possible to beat him.”

Perez says he has put his nightmare Monaco weekend behind him and is looking forward to getting his title challenge back on track at the Spanish Grand Prix. 

"Formula 1 is my passion," he said. "I live for it, so it hurts a lot because you work so hard as a team and it feels like you have let your whole team down, so it hurts.

"But now this is behind me. It was important for me to put my hand up and I think every time you do a mistake, that is what you've got to do. Take responsibility.

"If this crash happened and I was 0.5s or a second off, I would be more concerned. But the positive thing is the speed is there to be able to swing around things, but for now I am mainly focused on weekend by weekend and I want to win and get victories on my side."