Red Bull's Max Verstappen put behind his Monaco disappointments in spectacular fashion this afternoon in Montreal, finishing P4 and ahead of team mate Daniel Ricciardo.
The Dutchman was his aggressive-self as soon as the lights went green, moving up to third at the start and initiating thereafter a close battle with Ricciardo right behind.
The Aussie appeared to close in on his team mate, who was then asked over the team's radio not to impede Ricciardo's progress, but that was all he needed to step up his pace and keep the sister car at bay.
Red Bull quickly bailed on its initial one-stop strategy with cold conditions impacting performance but oddly, tyre degradation was also more important than presumed. A weakness Verstappen believes ultimately prevented him from courting a podium finish.
"It was a good race," said the Dutchman.
" Just a shame we didn’t finish on the podium in front of the Williams but, early on, we realised we had too much degradation on the tyres. We tried to make the best of it, and that’s what we did today."
Upon receiving the recommendation not to resist his team mate during the first stint of the race, Verstappen just put his foot down.
"I was just saving my tyres. I knew I couldn’t keep up with Vettel and Hamilton so I was just controlling it a bit and saving my fuel.
"When I got the call, I started to push again and opened up the gap and there was no issue anymore."
Towards the end of the race, Mercedes' Nico Rosberg pulled out all the stops in an attempt to steal fiurth from the Red Bull driver. But Verstappen would have none of it, offering a fierce and superb resistance.
"I was such a long time in fourth, I just said I don’t want to give up this position again. I knew it was going to be hard, we fought for it, and we stayed fourth."
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