Verstappen: Red Bull "didn’t really have the pace to fight upfront"

Despite failing to securing the victory at last Sunday's Canadian Grand Prix, reigning champion Max Verstappen reckoned that Red Bull extracted the maximum from its package at the Circuit de Gilles Villeneuve.

Having fractionally missed out on pole position in qualifying, four-time F1 champion Max Verstappen started from P2 on the grid at Montreal.

The Dutchman had a great start, but he was unable to pick polesitter George Russell off, but kept a close watch on the Mercedes. Despite unning in the dirty air, he was able to hang on to the Mercedes driver for the opening laps, but was unable to make a move.

Having suffered from higher than expected tyre degradation, Verstappen pitted early, but his second stint was not much better as he struggled to keep his rear tyres alive.

However, his final stint saw Verstappen fly, and he was able to get a bit closer to Russell, but he had to settle for second at the 70-lap Montreal race.

As for his team-mate Yuki Tsunoda, the Canadian Grand Prix was another race to forget. The Japanese driver started P18 after his ten-place grid drop penalty.

Although he elected to complete the race distance with a one-stop strategy, he couldn’t quite make it back to the top 10, to make it a run of three races without points.

Despite failing to securing the victory at Montreal, Verstappen offered an explanation, claiming that Red Bull extracted the maximum from its package at the Circuit de Gilles Villeneuve.

“Today we definitely maximised everything that we had available. We drove quite a defensive race today and it was quite tough out there. The tyre degradation was quite high and in the first two stints we were going through the tyres quite quickly.

"We were quite aggressive with our strategy to stay ahead and during the last pit stop I thought it might be difficult to make it to the end. The last stint helped us a bit with the lighter fuel load and we were a bit more kind on the tyres which was positive.

"If you look at the whole race this was the maximum result possible. We didn’t really have the pace to fight upfront and had a bit too much degradation to be in the fight for the win, so I’m happy to be P2. The gap wasn’t big to George but didn’t think I had the pace to fight for the win.

Signing off with a reflection on Red Bull's performance, Verstappen said: "There are lots of positives from the weekend: as a Team we did the best performance possible, got it right and our car was in a decent window.

"Looking to the next race we have a bit of work to do with our tyre management and the degradation but lots of positives to take forward," the Dutchman concluded.