Max Verstappen praised the efforts of his Oracle Red Bull Racing team following his dominant pole position in Montreal, in difficult situations, which caught multiple drivers out.
Verstappen showcased exceptional pace throughout the qualifying session, finishing in a remarkable time of 1:25.858s during the initial phase of Q3. His impressive lap secured pole position by a substantial margin of over one second compared to his closest contender, Nico Hülkenberg, before the red flags were deployed due to Oscar Piastri’s crash.
“We made the right calls at the right time today. It was very important to get the communication right with the Team, to really keep on top of things as the weather was changing by the minute, we were clear with what we wanted to do.
“It was good that I could really push the car, despite the conditions on track. I like this track and in the wet it’s even more challenging.”
Verstappen is feeling a lot more positive than he did on Friday and hopes he can carry the momentum of pole position into the race.
“It’s difficult to say what’s going to happen tomorrow, I felt quite good on the long runs this morning so hopefully we will have good pace. It’s a long race, a lot of things can happen so we just need to be on top of things.”
Sergio Pérez: “Anything can happen in the race”
Credit: Alex Bierens de Haan/Getty Images/Red Bull Content Pool
Sergio Pérez had an extremely disappointing afternoon in Montreal getting knocked out in Q2, but the Mexican is hoping he can work his back to the front.
Perez began the season in good form, which meant expectations were raised that he could potentially challenge Verstappen for the world championship. However, at present, those aspirations seem extremely uncertain.
With a deficit of fifty-three points to his teammate in the standings, Perez finds himself in a challenging situation. Once again, he will have to fight his way through the field on Sunday’s race. This marks the third consecutive race weekend where Perez has been unable to advance to Q3. Considering the competitive nature of his car, he is well aware that such results fall below the expected standard.
“Getting the tyres in the right window was the main issue today. It was looking well until we got caught out with the conditions, it was raining and then when it started drying up we went onto the slick tyre, probably about half a lap too late. We couldn’t get track position and then once the temperature was in the tyres it started raining harder and it was just too late.
“Once we were on the inter it was just too wet to get the lap time. Yesterday was a positive day and today in the wet we had figured out a lot going into qualifying, which was really encouraging. We could have been a lot higher but in these conditions, it was a bit of a lottery with tyres and it was tricky out there.
“The aim tomorrow, of course, will be to come through the field and get a strong result. Anything can happen in the race, we will keep our heads down, work hard overnight and try to minimise the damage.”