Verstappen praises Red Bull for opting for the medium for Q3
Having grabbed second place on the grid for today's Canadian Grand Prix, reigning champion Max Verstappen reckons that he was "fairly happy" with his RB21's overall performance while he also hailed Red Bull for opting for Pirelli's medium rubber for his final push lap in qualifying.
Reigning champion Max Verstappen had a quiet opening day at Montreal. Although his car usually lacks overall performance on tracks that feature bumps and high kerbs, he displayed encouraging performance in the third and final practice session at Montreal.
The Dutchman then went on to fly in qualifying despite a recurrence of the heavy steering wheel issue he first experienced in FP1. He was right in the mix for pole in Q3 after opting for the mediums for his last run, and was only denied Mercedes rival George Russell, and will be therefore lining up second on the first row of the grid.
Reflecting on his qualifying performance, Verstappen said: “Overall this weekend has been quite positive for us. As soon as I jumped in the car in FP1 the balance was there and I was fairly happy with our overall performance.
"FP2 was slightly trickier but in Qualifying we made the right call with the tyres as we felt better with the mediums. I feel like the balance of the car was there and we maximised our performance.
"We need to understand more about the degradation of our tyres and what was going on there as we were missing overall grip to fight for Pole. However, I don’t think there was much more we could have really done today and I’m happy with second."
Signing off with a word for his expectations for the race, Verstappen noted: "Hopefully tomorrow we can have a good start and look after our tyres. Our car can be trickier in the corners but there will be a long race ahead of us and hopefully it will be a strong race for us."
