Horner thinks changing weather conditions can influence strategies at Montreal
With the weather conditions expected to be warmer today than on the opening two days of the Canadian Grand Prix weekend, Red Bull team boss Christian Horner expects strategies to play a big role in today's Montreal race.
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.
His team-mate Yuki Tsunoda had a difficult day in Montreal, as he lost plenty of running in final practice with a brake issue. Although he looked fairly competitive at the beginning of qualifying, his day was heavily compromised by an incident that occurred in final practice.
The Japanese driver was handed a 10-place grid drop for a red flag infringement in FP3, which was announced midway through Qualifying. Although he was able to make Q2, he failed to progress into the last qualifying segment and will start from the back of the field tomorrow.
"It nearly came off for us today, well done to George and Mercedes on the pole and it should be a good race tomorrow. We had a good Friday morning and then tried a few things Friday afternoon with Max that he didn’t quite like as much, but it was all good learning.
"Now he has had a good solid qualifying and we are on the front row, the same front row as last year, but in warmer temperatures. That will be our 200th front row start and it was important to us to be starting on the front row.
"The tyre deg is going to be crucial here, in terms of graining and its warm here and getting warmer tomorrow, so strategy is going to be important and that could make it a really exciting race.
"I am sure the McLarens will be strong in the Grand Prix but we just have to focus on ourselves and our race and see what we can do tomorrow.
Signing off with a word for Tsunoda, Horner said: "Yuki has been unlucky today, the penalty is very harsh and 10 places for tomorrow is a huge shame for him, especially as he had a pretty solid qualifying and just missed out on Q3. But it is what it is, and he now has to fight back from there on race day."
