Red Bull’s Max Verstappen is eager for “a cleaner weekend” after battling to second in Qualifying for 2024 Canadian Grand Prix.
After rain disrupted Friday Practice sessions during which Verstappen suffered a technical issue early in FP2, the Dutchman managed to finish second in FP3 and Qualifying but missed out on pole position to Mercedes’ George Russell.
Both Verstappen and Russell set 1m 12.000 but because Russell had set the time on his first Q3 flier, he was credited with pole position ahead of the three-time champion who was “happy” to take second which “was certainly more than I thought was possible after FP3.”
Verstappen though is wary that the rest of the grid have now caught up to Red Bull and clean weekends will be key, as he quipped: “We always knew this track was going to be a bit more tricky than others and it seems that a lot of the teams are catching up.
“We tried to do the best we can and just need to make sure we have a cleaner weekend as we have been slightly on the back foot.”
Looking ahead to the race, Verstappen is apprehensive about making a prediction due to the risk of rain and little race simulation on a newly resurfaced track.
“Looking to tomorrow, I think it will come down to the weather and tyre behaviour. The rain will make it more interesting, especially with the tarmac making it more slippery, the chicanes and the close walls.
Verstappen’s teammate, Sergio Perez meanwhile will start 16th on the grid after failing to escape Q1 for a second consecutive race, which the Mexican put down to the fact that he wasn’t “able to switch on the rear axle, I couldn’t lean on it at all and I didn’t have any confidence at the time to push.
“Basically, I had no grip, I was sliding too much and that meant our qualifying was a total disaster. We need to look at it and understand the reason behind it, it was stepping away from me all the time.
“In hindsight we could have done a lot of different things but at the end of the day we lacked some pace, simple as that.”
Perez had signed a new two-year contract prior to the start of the race weekend but believes that there “are some fundamental issues that we need to address, understand, and figure out, to make sure we are able to improve in the coming races.”
The Mexican consequently is hoping for a wet race to help him salvage some points from the weekend.
“The weather can hopefully help us, it can make things unpredictable, and we will see what we can do with the strategy as well.”
Leave a Reply