Max Verstappen’s feet were “flying off the pedals” as Red Bull explains Montreal struggles

Motorsport photo Following the significant progress made in Miami, the opening day of the race weekend in Canada proved more challenging for Red Bull. Max Verstappen had to settle for seventh place in sprint qualifying, just ahead of team-mate Isack Hadjar . During the second segment of sprint qualifying, Verstappen had already complained over the team radio and returned to the pitlane early, despite sitting in the danger zone in ninth place at the time.

A seventh-place starting position for the third sprint race of the season is not what Verstappen was looking for, although based on his feeling behind the wheel he had not expected anything different. “I'm not surprised. I mean, my feeling in the car was not very good.

I was struggling a lot with just the ride of the car,” Verstappen said after sprint qualifying. “So, all over the bumps, I couldn't put my foot down. Actually, my feet were even flying off the pedals.

It just made it very difficult to be consistent and that's something that we need to investigate. ” Attacking the kerbs is traditionally a key factor at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, and according to Verstappen that is precisely where he is currently losing a significant amount of lap time. “That was not great.