Max Verstappen told his team “I guess I still know how to drive” on the radio after taking third on the grid for the Canadian Grand Prix.
The Red Bull driver referred to the criticism of the series of incidents he’s been involved in during the first six races of 2018.Verstappen was quickest in all three practice sessions at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. He beat one of each of the Mercedes and Ferraris despite making a mistake at turn eight on his final flying lap.
He will start the race on the hyper-soft tyres while Sebastian Vettel and Valtteri Bottas ahead of him will be on the harder ultra-soft compound. “Not bad, we can race from here,” Verstappen added on the radio.
“I’m very happy with this weekend so far,” Verstappen said after qualifying. “The car has been working really well.
“We know that in qualifying we are missing top speed but to be third I think is great for us. I think especially in the race we can do a really good job.”
Asked if his car has the pace to contend for victory, Verstappen said: “I think we have.”
“Starting on the softer tyre is a benefit here, it’s quite slippery on the track. During the race I think we are anyway competitive.”
Verstappen’s team mate Daniel Ricciardo will start the race from sixth on the grid.
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hahostolze (@hahostolze)
9th June 2018, 20:44
Nobody is accusing you of lacking pace you stubborn … let’s wait till tomorrow and see how you deal with a race pressure situation.
jj_0
9th June 2018, 20:54
Oooh, touchy… Give it a rest already.
Nathan Builder (@nathanbuilder)
10th June 2018, 1:45
Never! No rest. Verstappen crashes a lot!
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
9th June 2018, 21:01
@hahostolze Indeed, with his pace he has just been throwing away results, going over the limit, that’s the problem.
John
9th June 2018, 22:05
Yeah, like last year. From 5 to 2 at the start.
David Not Coulthard (@davidnotcoulthard)
10th June 2018, 1:18
@hahostolze that’s got nothing to do with what VES said
David Not Coulthard (@davidnotcoulthard)
10th June 2018, 1:18
though yeah he better not screw it up in the race, which after all is where you get points
Ronald (@)
10th June 2018, 1:31
Dealing with a ‘race pressure situation’??? f f f f frightening!!! Ofcourse; that will be a major issue for VER! LOL
My television isn’t 4K or OLED so maybe that is blurring my view but I do remember I have seen him winning a GP because of something you’ve missed completely for some strange reason!? It’s called talent! You don’t like him, fine, but with your ‘looking-back-knowledge-comments’ you can start a career as History-teacher right away! VER is trying to focus on what’s ahead of him, things can change during a season…
Nick (@nick101)
10th June 2018, 7:37
I’m running a book on how many he’ll take out at the first corner.
Anyone want some of the action?
Although I must warn you, if you bet on him taking out at least someone, the odds aren’t going to be very good for you!
LOL
Nugo (@nugolo)
10th June 2018, 12:42
@hahostolze, spot on. He is going to need more than one weekend to prove that he found again calm and consistency. If, indeed, he did.
Robert (@gicu)
9th June 2018, 21:01
Great, kid! Don’t get cocky.
Effwon (@effwon)
10th June 2018, 0:33
Give him a break, buddy. He used to bull’s-eye womp rats in his T-16 back home.
Garns (@)
10th June 2018, 12:32
@effwon
Don’t be too harsh- he’s not such a bad pilot himself 😂
Mashiat (@mashiat)
9th June 2018, 21:02
Been quite edgy this weekend hasn’t he?
David BR (@david-br)
10th June 2018, 13:59
@mashiat Well, relentless media and fan pressure where he’s blamed for every incident within 10 yards of him probably has that effect! His response has been pretty good though. A lot of drivers have dwindled under such hostile and excessive pressure. Blaming Verstappen for Baku and Stroll’s lumbering restart were wrong, imo. He’s accepted blame for the worst of the bunch, taking out Vettel, and for the Monaco practice crash. The rest have been marginal judgements, like aggressively overtaking Hamilton but not leaving enough space and getting a puncture in the process. So turning these incidents into one big, rolling example of ineptitude, arrogance and denial just seems like ‘daisy cutting’ mentality to me, a desire to reduce the exceptional to well-behaved mediocrity and predictability. And F1 fans complain that the sport is getting things wrong? Maybe it’s also them.
Gabriel (@rethla)
9th June 2018, 21:06
Maybe he headbutted someone.
Feuerdrache (@xenomorph91)
9th June 2018, 21:10
I wish he will make a stupid mistake again – maybe a Mansell rememberance hand wave to the fans in P1 and stalling the car? I just want to see him starting headbutting random journalists at once.
mystic one (@mysticus)
9th June 2018, 21:16
Most funny thing is when he is cocky he usually makes the most mistakes!
Hope he doesnt headbutt one of the chicanes or vettel in the first chicane :) Vettel is not one like to be headbutted :)
Gabriel (@rethla)
9th June 2018, 21:40
Hes into ping pong however
C. Highwind
9th June 2018, 21:42
Vettel as an veteran driver and worldchampion headbuttet Hamiltons car in the middle of the race. He deliberatly drove in to Hamilton behind the savety car. He should have been given a black flag and a couple race bans.
George
9th June 2018, 22:19
Seems like Vettel has received a software update… Less whining, less anger, this year. The Lewis / Seb incident is one of the no-consequence actions that will be remembered in 15 years, about a F1 period that was as dull as never before, so I wouldn’t be too harsh about it.
C. Highwind
10th June 2018, 3:18
Dude
If any other driver would have done that
That would have been a black flag
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
9th June 2018, 21:17
It’ll funny if he ruins it tomorrow. You never know, even the best out there suffered the Wall of Champions.
Mach1 (@mach1)
9th June 2018, 21:49
It would be hilarious if he binned it…….
John
9th June 2018, 22:03
Don’t get your hopes up.
Arnoud van Houwelingen (@arnoudvanhouwelingen)
9th June 2018, 22:25
pathetic .. and you call yourself a F1 fan??
Ronald (@)
10th June 2018, 10:17
anon
9th June 2018, 22:03
@fer-no65, that is certainly true – if he had entered this weekend with a less confrontational approach, then even if he were to have an incident in the race, it would probably not be judged quite as harshly. Instead, the way in which he has responded means that he’ll probably be even more harshly judged – it almost feels as if he wants to provoke the press into being even more critical of him.
NewVerstappenFan (@jureo)
9th June 2018, 22:28
Max has no style. Mark Webber for example was not bad for a #2 driver after he had won the British GP.
Max is winning nothing so far this weekend. And even if he manages not to crash, he will still keep a 50% crashrate for this years weekend. I am sure Maldonado crashed less often than Max does this year?
Arnoud van Houwelingen (@arnoudvanhouwelingen)
10th June 2018, 0:49
your first sentence doesn’t make sense at all and he still can win this weekend or do you have a crystal ball??
C. Highwind
10th June 2018, 3:19
Interlagos in the rain
Oscar (@oscar)
10th June 2018, 8:16
In fact, it does make sense; unless you don´t remember or simply don´t know what did Mark say, and when…
Big Joe
9th June 2018, 22:44
I’ve noted how anti-max sentiment in here increased every time Max has overtaken Lewis a race or outqualified him. Max having the inferior car must really rub salt in.
John H (@john-h)
10th June 2018, 0:14
I think it’s more his unwillingness to admit error this season to be honest. Nothing to do with Hamilton.
Pleased for Vettel today, nice to see the Ferrari with pace at Montreal, great qualifying. Kudos to Max.
C. Highwind
10th June 2018, 3:22
He of course has admitted error
He is much further in his development than we know
Ju88sy (@)
10th June 2018, 10:19
@Big Joe you do post some tosh mate. Unfortunately one of the ever growing number of trolls in the comments section of which a number have appeared below the line this weekend,
Esploratore (@esploratore)
9th June 2018, 22:56
@keithcollantine why are there no more team radio articles this year? They were interesting!
glynh (@glynh)
10th June 2018, 0:33
Agreed, I imagine they take a while to type up but I miss those and a few other features this year. I haven’t seen them on other sites either (not that I’ve looked hard).
Vettel fan 17 (@)
9th June 2018, 23:08
Nice job from him, looking for redemption I guess. Needs to keep a cool head tomorrow though
David (@davidjwest)
9th June 2018, 23:27
Time to get cocky when you finish the race on the podium kid.
Invisiblekid
9th June 2018, 23:28
Of course you can still drive duh! It’s how and when we all had a problem with.
Now repeat this on Sunday and we’ll all fall over with love for you again. Huzzah
Jay Menon (@jaymenon10)
9th June 2018, 23:32
Well..Turn 1 has a bit of a history of crashes…so still early days..haha
#crashstappen.com
ia
9th June 2018, 23:49
Max to me shows he was the fastest in Q, but he lacked a party mode. Still he beat Lewis and Kimi. I think it shows how good he is.
I think a lot of people who comment on Max don’t know much about F1 and racing. They do not understand how good Max is at 20. He beat Ricciardo many times last season at 19 and Ricciardo is very good. He actually made him better by challenging him so hard.
It took him one race in a new car to win a grandprix. He managed his tires like the best and kept a faster Kimi behind him for 50 laps by exiting the turn into the strait better then Kimi. And he didn’t make one mistake in that race.
Now he has made two mistakes and all at ones he should be a bad racer? I’ve have seen Sen and Lewis make bad mistakes, but they are still very good.
Watch Brasil last season. Who can challenge Max in rain? Not one of all the world champions that were racing that day had his pace.
JohnH (@johnrkh)
10th June 2018, 1:22
As in most cases the start will be crucial. Verstappen has done his job so far and is in a good position to take advantage of any errors in front of him. I would think that he will be able to take Bottas at the start, but he should settle for that and not to try and take Vettel as well. That could well lead to a coming together. I think Hamilton and Ricciardo will play it cool and see how things pan out in the first couple of laps. Unless something is handed to them on a plate.
Nikki (@nikkit)
10th June 2018, 7:05
He’s probably junxed himself now, but see how he does in the race. After all, it’s only the sunday that counts.
On one hand, he needs a good result, but that might leave him over-confident come the next race and raise the chances of a crash and it’ll be back to square one.
Pratyush P (@pratyushp276)
10th June 2018, 7:50
The Max-bashing is going too far now, people actually WANT him to crash so that they can say “I told you so.”
Not a good attitude for any kind of F1 fan, if you ask me.
Illusive (@illusive)
10th June 2018, 8:48
He doesn’t do himself any favours with his attitude. He can be a great driver, but he will have to learn to avoid thinking too much about the criticism he gets.
He needs to find the right balance between aggression and mindful driving.
Oscar (@oscar)
10th June 2018, 8:49
I think he will try to stay out of trouble at the first corner, but only to ram his car into the Wall of Champions a bit later. ¯\_༼ᴼل͜ᴼ༽_/¯
Zeke
10th June 2018, 10:04
Max is such a knob. He should be wearing a red helmet
with the words “Make F1 Great Again” above the visor.
Jeroen Bons
10th June 2018, 11:48
Zeke, …He already did.
Lolita
10th June 2018, 10:18
Be afraid, be very afraid…