I'm just guessing here, but when Häkkinen became a father, he said he lost his fearlessness that you need to compete at the top level. I know Checo already has children, but he has just had a fourth one, so maybe his mind his there a bit more? Combine that with Verstappens hyper domination that would easily crush all but the toughest minds. I have no idea whether he actually believed that he could challenge for the WDC after the first four races, so that might play a part, too? He has always had mid season slumps at Red Bull, but this one is turning out to be quite a big one...
Perez has been really unimpressive these last races. He should be able to at least qualify in the top 4, given that he has by far the best car available. But constantly failing to even reach Q2 is a joke.
At the same time props to McLaren, hopefully the updated car is as good as it looks also in the race.
What explains the McLaren result? P2 and P3!? That’s tremendous from them. Both drivers just dialed in like crazy? Circuit really suits the car? Significant recent upgrades I didn’t hear about maybe?