Verstappen still happy despite missing out on pole

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Max Verstappen had been stamping his authority all through the Canadian Grand Prix weekend, after he managed to sweep all three free practice sessions.

But that run ran out when it got to Saturday afternoon's qualifying, when Ferrari was finally able to show its true colours.

Sebastian Vettel topped Q1, and then clinched pole in the final round with a time of 1:10.776s - 0.320s faster than Verstappen could manage.

But the Dutch driver was far from downhearted after putting the Red Bull into third position on the grid for tomorrow's race.

"I'm very happy with this weekend so far," he said. "The car has been working really well. We know that in qualifying we are just missing top speed.

"We knew that in Q3 it was going to be a bit harder for us.

“In qualifying the track grips up quite a lot so you just have to follow the track," he explained. “We extracted the best we could.

"To be third is great for us. I think especially in the race we can do a really good job."

The raw power of the Renault engine compared to those of Mercedes and Ferrari has been a ongoing problem for Red Bull this season.

Vettel flies to pole in Canada, as Hamilton slides to fourth

However Verstappen insisted that when it came to the race, they would have the pace to challenge.

"I think we have," he said. "Our weekend has been really strong, and every session we have made good progress with the car."

Verstappen and his team mate Daniel Ricciardo will also have the advantage of starting the race on the pink hypersoft compound which they used to set their fastest laps in Q2.

"Starting on the softer tyres is a benefit here because it's quite slippery on the track. And then during the race I think are anyway competitive.

“We think it’s a good tyre for us, and in the long run [in practice] I felt good on it," he added. "We thought that Ferrari and Mercedes were going to qualify on the ultras."

It's a risk, and not everyone agrees that it's the right strategy.

"I don’t think the hypersoft is a good race tyre," said Vettel. "I’m a bit surprised that both of the Red Bulls chose that. But I guess they have their reasons."

Everyone will get to see who has made the right strategy call when the lights go out on Sunday for the start of the Canadian Grand Prix.

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.