Verstappen: Tricky but sometimes we have those days

In the wake of Verstappen's clean sweep of every session in Spain two weekends ago, sixth and eighth on the timesheets, for the World Champion and his Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez, was an anomaly on an abnormal Friday at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.

The CCTV failure that affected FP1 meant an extended FP2 to make up for lost time and, with rain threatening for most of the 90-minute session, turning the entire day quite strange. Hence the unusual result for the Blue cars more accustomed to appearing at the sharper end of proceedings.

Despite this, 2023 F1 world championship leader Verstappen took the 'setback' in his stride: “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.

"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. It might be raining tomorrow which will throw a few surprises out there in qualifying, then perhaps dry on Sunday.

"That will also affect things. It was a tricky session but sometimes we have those days. 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," reckoned Verstappen, last year's winner in Canada.

The four-tenths gap to an apparently resurgent Mercedes suggests also that Re Bull may have kept their powder dry for when things get serious in Qualifying on Saturday, but do have work to do before that.

In the sister car, Sergio Perez was chasing his teammate again and summed up his Friday: "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.

"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 [Friday] has all been a bit of a hurry. There is plenty for us to understand, we need to improve our ride and the other teams look strong too, so we will see Saturday where everybody is.

"I think it should be an interesting weekend, it gets really dark here in this weather, the visibility becomes poor and the conditions become undrivable pretty quickly - if the rain comes for qualifying hopefully it’s not much," added Perez.

Red Bull have won all seven races this season and are outright favourites to win the 42nd running of the Canadian Grand Prix, with Verstappen seeking to extend his 2023 F1 World Championship points lead with a sixth victory on Sunday in Montreal, while Perez is hunting his third of the season.