Max is one of the pace setters at Homestead
Published on 13 February 2014 by Stefan Meens
Max Verstappen showed excellent pace during the free practice sessions for the third round of the Florida Winter Series at the Homestead Speedway. In the four 45 minutes sessions, the sixteen-year-old Dutchman never dropped out of the top three.
In the first session Max had to settle for second, however in FP2 and FP4 he finished in top spot. The third free practice was spilt in two, due to rain. In the dry part Max occupied second. In the wet, third was to be his share.
Prior to free practice, the drivers venture on a track walk
Wednesday at 10 am local time, the field of youngsters is unleashed for the first practice session. Antonio Fuoco sets the pace throughout and ends on top with a 1:24.2 as his fastest lap. Max finishes FP1 as runner-up trailing Fuoco by four tenths. In the second session, the Italian remains one of the front runners. However, this time Max sets the fastest lap, a 1:24.011, two tenths faster than number two Tatiana Calderon.
All drivers are out on track in the early stages of the third free practice session. At the halfway point, Calderon leads the pack with a 1:25.5. Max trails her by 0.089s. Then, it starts to rain and the organisation decides to clear the lap times to give a clear indication of the drivers' performance in the wet. Max, in the rain, is again among the top runners. As Latifi ends the session in first place with a 1:30.6, the two Dutchies Dennis van de Laar and Verstappen junior occupy second and third.
"Today was a good day but I didn't feel comfortable on wet tyres", explains Max. "We used the same set of tyres we used during round 2 at Palm Beach so the tyres were not anywhere near their optimal operating window.
Max in colours that become more and more familiar
The fourth session starts with wet track conditions. However, the circuit is drying quickly which means we see plenty of people topping the timing sheets in rapid succession. With twelve minutes on the clock, and everyone on slicks, the session is red flagged because of an incident involving Calderon. By that point it is Raffaele Marciello who is fastest with Max in fifth.
As FP4 resumes, the top spot exchanges hands several times. When the session time runs out, most drivers cross the line in time to put in one more flyer. Max utilises this extra lap to the full as he claims the fastest time. The rapid youngster sets purple times in all three sectors and ends the session at the very top of the leaderboards. Latifi and Fuoco complete the top three.
"That last lap wasn't bad at all. We were able to stick on slicks for the remaining twenty minutes and I managed to squeeze out a fast lap at the very end of the session", says a satisfied Max.
Thursday it is game on for real, when Max needs to deliver when it really matters with two qualifying sessions and race 1 scheduled.
Max receives final instructions before another outing
Results day 1 (Wednesday February 12) - Homestead Speedway – Florida Winter Series:
Results Free Practice 1
Results Free Practice 2
Results Free Practice 3
Results Free Practice 3
Results Free Practice 4
Schedule Florida Winter Series Round 3, Homestead Speedway (GMT):
Thursday February 13 03:00pm-03:30pm: Qualifying Race 1 04:00pm-04:30pm: Qualifying Race 3 08:45pm-09:15pm: Race 1 Friday February 14 04:00pm-04:30pm: Race 2 08:45pm-09:15pm: Race 3
Click for a direct link to the Florida Winter Series livetiming.
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