"There's a lot of very good drivers in F1 but Max Verstappen is exceptional" - Jenson Button praises the Red Bull driver's pole lap in Canada

Jenson Button has reserved special praise for Max Verstappen, calling the Red Bull driver the exceptional one in a grid of very good drivers.

Button's comments came after the 2023 F1 Canadian GP's qualifying session. It was a very tricky challenge for everyone involved as the conditions continued to change. Not only that, there were far too many situations where a team had to be perfect in picking the right tires or the right time to go out on track.

Red Bull and Max Verstappen nailed it in every session and in the end, he secured pole position by a gap of around 1.3 seconds over Nico Hulkenberg in P2. Talking about the Dutch driver, former world champion Jenson Button lauded the way Max put together his lap time.

Talking to Sky Sports, Button claimed that if we look at Verstappen's onboards, it's clear to see how brilliantly he managed everything. The red flag late in the session did mean that no one was able to put together a challenge, but Button felt that nobody would have been able to beat the lap time anyway. He said:

"You just watch his lap and there's such low grip. It's really fun watching the cars around here but I know how difficult it is to do what he achieves.

"There's a lot of very good drivers in F1, but Max is exceptional. He doesn't do it without a great time behind him and a little bit of luck, being on track at the right time. I think he would have been on pole without the red flag, but not by 1.3 seconds."

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Max Verstappen looks back at another successful qualifying session

Looking back at the 2023 F1 Canadian GP qualifying session, Max Verstappen put down the team's success to making the right calls at the right time. He said as quoted by F1.com:

"We made the right calls at the right time today. It was very important to get the communication right with the team, to really keep on top of things as the weather was changing by the minute, we were clear with what we wanted to do.

"It was good that I could really push the car, despite the conditions on track."

He added:

"I like this track and in the wet it’s even more challenging. It’s difficult to say what’s going to happen tomorrow, I felt quite good on the long runs this morning so hopefully we will have good pace. It’s a long race, a lot of things can happen so we just need to be on top of things."

The race in Canada gave Max Verstappen the 25th pole position of his career and fifth of the season so far.