Canadian Grand Prix pole position a vindication for Red Bull says Sebastian Vettel

Red Bull was forced to change the design of its floor ahead of the Montreal weekend because of the controversial 'holes' in it, which the FIA ruled were illegal.

The changes did not seem to impact the performance much, however, as Vettel secured his second pole position of the season by over three tenths of a second.

"We changed the car, we had to close the hole/slot - it seemed to work pretty well without the hole," said Vettel after qualifying.

"It is not just a hole in the floor that makes all the difference. It's a shame it went one way or another, and a shame it was declared. We never feared for performance.

"We were not afraid it would have a big impact on performance. It was good today and even without the hole I enjoyed today."

Vettel said the team faced somewhat of a race against time to modify the car for the weekend, and he admitted he was surprised by the relatively big gap to the cars behind him today.

"There wasn't a lot of time to react, it depends on what kind of schedule to follow," he said. "We were focusing on ourselves and that was important.

"In qualifying we tried to get the maximum out of every run. We seemed to improve in every run, and moving away from guys behind was a bit of a surprise.

"On this track is usually quite difficult to make a big difference so I am very happy."