Fourth place for Max in Friday's qualifying session
Published on 02 May 2014 by Stefan Meens
Max Verstappen will start the first race of the European Formula 3 championship round at Hockenheim from the second row on the grid. After setting a third fastest lap in the second free practice session earlier in the day, Verstappen junior went on to claim a fourth position in his fast and reliable Van Amersfoort Racing F3 racer.
Despite a short rain shower earlier in the afternoon, the track is dry for the twenty minute qualifying session. Max leaves the pits early on for a nine lap stint in which he manages a 1:32.586, a very impressive time indeed. Unfortunately it is not enough to claim the top spot as Max trails polesitter Lucas Auer by two tenths. The Austrian will share the front row of the grid with Antonio Giovinazzi. Max will start alongside Edward Jones.
“My qualifying was ok. If I’m honest, I hoped for a bit more”, reveals an ever ambitious Max. “My fastest lap was a good one but quite quickly after that my lap times become slower and slower so we have to look into that to sustain consistency. Also, I'm still not happy with my third sector. I feel we need to search for more traction so we keep on trying to improve.”
Racefans that kept an eye on the live timing throughout qualifying, will have observed that several lap times were invalided. The drivers in question, including Max, had crossed the white (the official track limit) and were therefore penalised.
Max: “A few times I edged just a bit too far over the white line. Luckily this wasn’t the case in my fastest lap.” The session is however a good warning for the drivers ahead of the race. If they receive more than two warnings, they will receive a drive-through penalty.
All in all, Max can look back on an encouraging Friday. With good pace throughout the day and a fourth place on grid for the first race, the 16-year-old is confident: “Hopefully the clutch will work better than last time round at Silverstone, where I experienced issues. If I have a better start I will definitely try to gain places. We'll see what happens.”
The full schedule for the FIA F3 European Championship round at Hockenheim can be found here.
To follow Max at Hockenheim you can make use of the official Euro F3 live timing and stream:
Live timing is available at: http://livetiming.de/timing/FIA
Live stream (races only) available at: http://www.fiaf3europe.com/livestream.html
Furthermore, via Twitter and Facebook we will keep you updated throughout the weekend followed by a full report on Verstappen.nl at the end of the day’s action. For exclusive pictures of Max, check out our Hockenheim photo album.
FIA Formula 3 European Championship – Round 2, Hockenheim – Day 1, Friday May 2:
Results qualifying 1
