Pole position slipped away by just 160 thousandths of a second, but there was satisfaction within Red Bull for the second-place qualifying result achieved by Max Verstappen for the Canadian Grand Prix. Just like a year ago in Montreal, when they even set identical times, the four-time world champion had to yield to George Russell.
However, 12 months ago the same grid situation played in Max Verstappen’s favour, as he went on to win the race. That is what Helmut Marko is hoping will happen again today, especially since the RB21 appears to have superior tyre management compared to the pole-sitting Mercedes, and McLaren has seemed significantly less competitive this weekend than in recent outings.
“We’re satisfied. We started the weekend feeling quite optimistic already from FP1, but then dropped back a bit due to some incorrect setup changes. In the end, though, everything came together again. We also changed the brake pads because Max wasn’t comfortable in FP3, and we can be content with second place,” the Red Bull motorsport advisor told Servus TV.
“Looking at the long runs, Mercedes clearly appeared worse in terms of tyre degradation. Also, last year he started from second place and that turned out well too,” he added.
Interestingly, both Russell and Max Verstappen fought for pole position using the medium tyre, which — just as in Imola — once again proved to be a viable qualifying option, perhaps even more effective than the C6 compound.
“It was a very tight decision, which is why we made sure both compounds were available, as temperatures dropped quite a bit toward the end. It was a close call, and luckily — or rather, as we predicted — we had both tyre types at our disposal.”
Finally, the Austrian advisor attempted to motivate Yuki Tsunoda, who will start from the back of the grid due to a 10-place penalty for overtaking Oscar Piastri’s McLaren under red flag conditions during FP3.
“He has this 10-place grid penalty, so he’ll start from the back. But in Canada we know that races can often be chaotic, so he might still recover. It’s a shame, because it was one of his best qualifying performances, but now he’ll have to serve that penalty.”
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