Max Verstappen took pole position for Canadian Grand Prix

We made the right calls at the right time today. It was very important to get the communication right with the Team, to really keep on top of things as the weather was changing by the minute, we were clear with what we wanted to do. It was good that I could really push the car, despite the conditions on track. I like this track and in the wet it’s even more challenging. It’s difficult to say what’s going to happen tomorrow, I felt quite good on the long runs this morning so hopefully we will have good pace. It’s a long race, a lot of things can happen so we just need to be on top of things.

Getting the tyres in the right window was the main issue today. It was looking well until we got caught out with the conditions, it was raining and then when it started drying up we went onto the slick tyre, probably about half a lap too late. We couldn’t get track position and then once the temperature was in the tyres it started raining harder and it was just too late. Once we were on the inter it was just too wet to get the lap time. Yesterday was a positive day and today in the wet we had figured out a lot going into qualifying, which was really encouraging. We could have been a lot higher but in these conditions, it was a bit of a lottery with tyres and it was tricky out there. The aim tomorrow, of course, will be to come through the field and get a strong result. Anything can happen in the race, we will keep our heads down, work hard overnight and try to minimise the damage.

Looking at the pace we showed in FP3, it’s a shame we didn’t make it out of Q1 today. At the same time, we have been struggling with pace from the beginning of the weekend, so we will need to look into this. I thought my final lap in Q1 was good, and I’m happy with it, but we lack overall pace. Tomorrow is a new day in dry conditions so I’m optimistic. I’ll try to overtake as many cars as possible and target points.

The biggest challenge today was the changing conditions. The track was drying towards the end of Q1, so we weren’t sure whether we wanted to box for a second set of intermediate tyres. In the end we did, and it came down to two laps. I had to back out on my penultimate lap because of traffic management in the last sector. This was the same battle for everyone so it’s not an excuse. You want to push to the limit, but I think today I undershot it. We didn’t have that much dry running to prepare for tomorrow, so it’s hard to know where we are, but we’ll do our best and I hope we can move forward from where we’re starting.