Canadian GP win “not a very straightforward race” insists Verstappen

Canadian Grand Prix winner Max Verstappen says his sixth victory of the season was “really difficult” despite leading from start to finish.

Verstappen converted pole position into his fourth consecutive victory at the Circuit de Gilles Villenueve, leading Fernando Alonso over the line by just under 10 seconds after a Safety Car period earlier in the race.

Despite dominating the race and never looking troubled out front, Verstappen insisted his afternoon had not been as simple as it may have looked.

“It was not a very straightforward race because the tyres were not really getting in their window,” the Red Bull driver explained. “It was very cold today compared to Friday and we were sliding around quite a bit.”

The win was Verstappen’s 41st grand prix victory of his career and the 100th win for the Red Bull team. Verstappen says he never anticipated reaching such a career tally of wins.

“To today win the 100th grand prix for the team, that’s incredible,” he said. “It’s amazing.

“I never expected to be on these kind of numbers myself as well, so we keep enjoying, we keep working hard but today has been a great day again.”

Although leading every lap, Red Bull’s margin of victory was smaller than many it has enjoyed through the 2023 season so far. However, Verstappen says he was not surprised to see Red Bull’s rivals closer to them during the race.

“I expected more or less what we had today,” he said. “It was really difficult to just keep the grip and the temperature in the tyres because the grip was disappearing very quickly. That’s why maybe the gap was not that big, but we had a few Safety Cars here and there. But overall we won, that’s the most important.”

Alonso said Aston Martin were “hoping to challenge a little bit more the Red Bull” but his race was compromised when Lewis Hamilton beat him off the line.

“We lost a place at the start with Lewis and then it was a battle with the Mercedes,” said Alonso. “Lewis was pushing all the race so I didn’t have one lap where I could relax a little bit. So it was an amazing battle.”

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