Resilient Max takes solid fourth place in race 2

Published on 03 August 2014 by Stefan Meens

Despite a battered and bruised car, Max Verstappen finished the second race at the Red Bull Ring in a solid fourth place. As championship leader Esteban Ocon failed to finish the race, the Dutchman gained twelve vital points and reduced the Frenchman’s lead to 94 points.
“I’m very happy to have finished the race and earn valuable points as it was very tough racing with a bend front suspension”, explains Max.

At the start, Max is able to hang on to seventh and finds himself battling with Jake Dennis. As the duo turn onto the main straight, Max makes a slight mistake giving Dennis the opportunity to get alongside before turning straight into the Van Amersfoort Racing driver. 

Max: “As I drove onto the main straight I went wide so I lost a bit of speed. I decided to keep my line, which meant Dennis and I were side by side. All of a sudden, he pulled to the left. He hit me and damaged my right front suspension. Because of that, my wheel was in weird angle which led to understeer in all the right handers.” 

Both Dennis and Jordan King are able to pass Max but the Dutchman is quick to retaliate. As he passes King, the Briton damages his own front suspension by being too aggressive over the kerbs forcing him to retire his car in a dangerous spot. The beached car prompts the first of three safety car.

Another safety car follows a few laps later when Dennis van de Laar spins at turn 1 while battling with Sean Gelael. The Dutchman’s race comes to an end at the runoff area.

After the second restart, it is only moments before the next incident occurs. Felix Rosenqvist tries to overtake Ocon on the start finish straight. The Frenchman leaves the Swede no room and the two collide ending both their races. The incident promotes Max to sixth, only a second behind Jake Dennis.
Post race, Ocon received a 10-place grid penalty relegating him to P14 on the race 3 grid.

As the race enters lap sixteen, the safety car makes its third appearance. Richard Goddard is launched after touching Roy Nissany on the approach into turn 2, crashing into Sandro Zeller. Two laps after the final restart, Max manages to take fifth place after overtaking Carlin driver Dennis, who straight after retires his car due to technical issues.

Meanwhile, Giovinazzi cruises to victory. Unfortunately, for the Italian, he is penalised for leaving too big a gap towards the safety car at one of the last restart and is given a drive through penalty. As he did not absolve the punishment during the race, the stewards award Giovinazzi a 20-second penalty, throwing him back to P16, thus granting Fuoco his second win of the year. Blomqvist gains second ahead of Lucas Auer and Verstappen junior.

Max: “Because of the damage to my front suspension my front tyres were completely worn. It meant I couldn’t attack during the race. The only thing I could do was hang on and hope that the guys in front would make mistakes. Fortunately for me, they did and I finished in fourth, which I’m very happy with."

Both Max’ teammates finished in the points with Gustavo Menezes claiming fifth and Jules Szymkowiak ninth. The latter displayed an impressive comeback after starting the race in P21. All in all a good result for team Van Amersfoort Racing.

The full schedule for the Red Bull Ring Euro F3 round can be found here.
Furthermore, you can follow Max via the official live timing and the live stream (races only).
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.

FIA Formula 3 European Championship Round 8 – Red Bull Ring – Day 3, Sunday August 1:
Results race 2