Red Bull’s Max Verstappen felt he “got quite lucky” in his victory at the Canadian Grand Prix.
Verstappen began the race second on a damp track but lost position to McLaren’s Lando Norris on Lap 20 but the pair cleared Mercedes’ George Russell a lap later.
The safety car however was deployed on Lap 25 after a spin for Williams’ Logan Sargeant which led Verstappen and other drivers to pit, but Norris stayed out and got caught by the safety car which handed Verstappen the lead on Lap 27 once Norris stopped.
By Lap 41, the track was dry enough for slick tyres but Red Bull left Verstappen out until the end of Lap 45, which proved key as Norris stayed out for two more laps but was passed by Verstappen in a race-winning move as he exited the pits on Lap 48.
Verstappen had to subsequently survive a second safety car to take his 60th F1 win which he credited to the team for nailing the strategy.
“The Team made all the right calls at the right time and remained really calm. If you look at the last few weekends that we have had in these conditions, we have typically always done well, so that gave me a lot of confidence going into today.
“We also got quite lucky with the safety car, sometimes it can work for you and sometimes against you but that is racing!”
A “locked suspension” however prevented Verstappen from sprinting away to a dominant win but he was pleased with his “pretty decent pace” on “a tough weekend”, which left him desiring a clean weekend post-Qualifying.
Reflecting on his victory as a whole, Verstappen was delighted to have had an entertaining battle for the win rather than one of his usual dominant runaway wins.
“It was a really rewarding victory today, these kind of races are a lot of fun as you don’t know what is going to be thrown at you and I enjoyed racing today.”
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