Max Verstappen may have lost out to George Russell in qualifying, but Helmut Marko isn’t fazed as he believes Mercedes’ tyre wear is “significantly worse” than Red Bull’s.

Reigning World Champion Verstappen will line up second for the 70-lap Canadian Grand Prix having been pipped to pole position by just over two-tenths by Russell.

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It sets up a juicy encounter for the Spanish Grand Prix protagonists after their last battled ended in a controversial clash when Verstappen accelerated into Russell in a move that the Mercedes driver felt was “very deliberate.”

The stewards ruled that the ‘collision was undoubtedly caused by the actions’ of Verstappen and gave him a 10-second penalty as well as three penalty points on his Super Licence.

That put him just one point away from an automatic race ban.

And now in a salivating storyline, he will line up the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve with that threat looming large, and Russell the driver he needs to attack off the line to take the lead.

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Verstappen has made it clear that he won’t change his approach to racing, and that it’s “really pissing me off” all the talk about a potential race ban. He just wants to do his race on Sunday with a podium finish in mind.

“I think being on the podium, trying to be as competitive as we can be, trying to extract the most out of the car,” he said. “But I don’t know. We’ll probably find out after the race if we did so.

“But, yeah, hopefully we can just be good on tyre management.”

Tyre management is where Red Bull motorsport advisor Marko believes Verstappen could have the edge over Russell.

“We can live with second place, especially if you look at the long runs,” Marko told ServusTV. “Mercedes looked significantly worse in terms of tyre wear and last year it also managed from P2.”

Verstappen did his final laps in qualifying on the medium tyres, Russell doing the same, while third-placed Oscar Piastri opted for the soft Pirelli tyres.

“It was also quite complicated with the tyres, so we kept them both (soft and medium) to see,” Marko revealed.

“The temperature eventually dropped quite sharply. It was a last-minute decision, but we were lucky, if not the right planning, to be able to use both tyre types.”

Verstappen lines up on the Montreal grid ahead of championship leader Piastri while second place in the Drivers’ standings, Lando Norris, is P7 after a mistake on his final flying lap.

That, though, has done nothing to bolster the Dutchman’s belief in a title tilt as he goes into the race 49 points down on Piastri.

“No, I just go race by race,” he said. “I don’t really look at that at all.

“I mean, even when I was in the championship fight or leading, you’re not consistently thinking about it.

“Just race by race. Try to always maximise everything. Try to do the best you can.”

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