Lewis Hamilton is looking forward to the potential of rain during qualifying for the Canadian Grand Prix.
Max Verstappen and Red Bull expecting some ‘surprises’ in qualifying at the Canadian Grand Prix
Red Bull believes they have some work to do headed into the weekend in Montreal
Photo by Dan Mullan/Getty Images
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Max Verstappen has a different view.
“I think it might be raining tomorrow which will throw a few surprises out there in qualifying,” said the Red Bull driver following Friday’s bizarre practice sessions. FP1 was halted after just four minutes due to an issue with the track’s CCTV system, and could not be resumed. FP2 was bumped up 30 minutes and ran for 90 minutes, but red flags and rain at the end of the session made for a tricky day.
Verstappen finished the brief FP1 session in fifth place, and came in sixth during the extended FP2.
“It wasn’t a straightforward day with basically no running in FP1, it was the same for everyone though. At least we could get in a decent amount of running in FP2,” said Verstappen in the team’s post-practice debrief.
“I think we still have quite a bit of work to do as the car isn’t fantastic at the moment over the bumps and kerbs. I mean it’s still not too bad, but we definitely need to fine tune a few things,” he added.
As for teammate Sergio Pérez, he finished the shortened FP1 in fourth place, and clocked in eighth in FP2.
“It was a real shame that we ended up losing FP1, we really needed it because the conditions weren’t ideal in FP2 towards the end,” said Pérez. “I think we’ve got good pace and just need to make sure we play a bit with the car now to get it in the right window because today has all been a bit of a hurry.”
Like Verstappen, Pérez believes the weather could make for an interesting weekend, starting with qualifying on Saturday.
“I think it should be an interesting weekend, it gets really dark here in this weather, the visibility becomes poor and the conditions become undriveable pretty quickly - if the rain comes for qualifying hopefully it’s not much,” he added.
Qualifying is set to get underway Saturday afternoon, and we’ll have live coverage for you throughout the afternoon, so check back often!
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