Montreal Gazette

Red Bull’s Verstappen savours Montreal’s ‘great vibe’

- STU COWAN scowan@postmedia.com

There’s an owner of a bike store somewhere in Montreal who really should have asked one of his customers last week a follow-up question.

That customer last Tuesday was Max Verstappen, a driver with Red Bull Racing who had just arrived in town for the Canadian Grand Prix.

“I had to buy some stuff for my bikes at home … my bicycles … so it was a good place here to get that. Good store,” Verstappen said at a media event Wednesday night. What was the name of the store? “It said something with cycling in it, but I don’t remember the beginning,” Verstappen said. “The owner was really nice.”

Did the owner know who he was? “No, luckily not,” Verstappen said. “So it was great. He asked if I was here for the racing and I said yeah, but I didn’t say more.”

And the owner didn’t ask any more questions.

On Sunday, Verstappen drove his Red Bull to a third-place finish on Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, finishing behind Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel and Valtteri Bottas of Mercedes. It was the second podium finish in the last three races for Verstappen, a 20-year-old rising star who also finished third at the Spanish Grand Prix. Verstappen sits sixth in the drivers’ standings, far behind Vettel (121), who is first after Sunday ’s victory, one point ahead of Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes, who finished fifth.

At the media event Wednesday, Verstappen spoke about how much he enjoys Montreal.

“I just like to walk around,” he said. “It’s a great vibe. Very nice people. Some places (in F1) you don’t like to come a bit early because there’s not so much to do. But here there’s things to do and there’s some very nice buildings. I don’t mind coming here. It’s just a very nice environmen­t, to be honest. Also the streets … to discover the shopping streets and just walk around.”

Walking around Montreal can be more fun than driving around because of our infamous potholes and the never-ending Constructi­on Festival.

“I think I have driven here (on the streets),” Verstappen said. “It’s very bumpy, but I know that’s because of the temperatur­e difference­s, right? Because of summer and winter — it’s warm and really cold — so it’s very difficult to maintain the streets. But it also has a bit of character.”

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from Canada