Red Bull is happy with Max Verstappen’s second place in qualifying in Canada – the team kept both tire options open until the end
“We can live with second place,” said Red Bull’s motorsport advisor Helmut Marko after qualifying for the Formula 1 race in Canada. Max Verstappen was at least able to beat both of his McLaren rivals in Montreal, but was pushed out of pole position at the last second by George Russell (Mercedes).
For a long time, Verstappen looked like the pole setter. The Dutchman was already in the lead after his first Q3 attempt. Oscar Piastri briefly took the lead in the second attempt, but the four-time world champion countered and moved 0.061 seconds ahead of the championship leader.
But then Russell crossed the line and surprisingly beat Verstappen’s time by 0.160 seconds. This meant that the Dutchman was beaten by the very driver he had clashed with in Barcelona – was that the reason for his terse answers in the subsequent press conference?
When asked if he had anything left in the car that could have made the difference, he replied with a simple “no,” and when asked to describe his session, his answer was also quite brief.
“It was okay, I improved in every qualifying step. We planned it that way with the medium, and everything worked well, so I’m happy with it,” said Verstappen.
Medium option left open
The medium was Red Bull’s tire choice in the decisive Q3 attempt after Verstappen had previously set his first time on softs. “It was relatively close, so we saved both tires,” Marko explained the decision on ServusTV.
“The temperature dropped quite a bit at the end. It was a very close call, and we were lucky or had planned it that way, that we had both types of tires.”
In the end, it was second place behind Russell, who had also opted for the mediums. “We are satisfied,” said Marko. The Red Bull RB21 performed significantly better on Saturday than in the second practice session. There, the team had got bogged down with a setup change that didn’t suit the car.
“We actually started this weekend very optimistically in the first practice session, then fell back a bit with a few incorrect setup changes, but in the end everything was right again,” said the Austrian, revealing that they had changed the brake pads on Verstappen’s car because he hadn’t felt comfortable in practice.
Verstappen praises: Car immediately in the window
“The team did a great job,” Verstappen praised after the session. “When we arrived, the car was immediately in the right window. So in terms of setup, the team did a very good job.”
“After that, it was of course a matter of fine-tuning the little things and, of course, the tires for qualifying. But overall, I was pretty happy with the car, which has definitely been a bit up and down this season. I think we just need to focus on the overall performance, which we’re perhaps lacking a little bit at times.”
“But sometimes we’re just chasing the balance of the car, so it’s two different things. This weekend, though, I had a good feeling. And that’s why I’m honestly very happy to have finished second in qualifying today.”
That gives him a good starting position in the race to catch up with McLaren in the championship battle. The long run looked okay from Red Bull’s perspective on Friday, and looking back at last year, when Russell also started from pole and had poor tire management, the team is confident.
“I was pretty happy with the car, you just have to look after the tires,” said Verstappen. “There was some graining yesterday for everyone, so we’ll try to keep that under control.”
