Max most prolific on Wednesday morning in Jerez

Published on 04 February 2015 by Mike Motilall

Wednesday morning Max Verstappen did a good but especially useful job for Scuderia Torro Rosso, by lapping the track of Circuito de Jerez 57 times in the STR10 during the first four hours. By doing so the 17-year-old Dutchman was the most prolific Formula 1-driver on the morning of the fourth and last test day on the Spanish race track.

The asphalt is still damp due to a nightly shower when the first cars hit the track. After a few installation laps, in which Max also does some practice starts, the Toro Rosso driver focuses on driving long stints. Max appears to cope perfectly with the continuously improving conditions: not only are his lap times constant but they are fast as well. On the intermediates his times drop from 1:37’s to 1:35.221 and with that Max shortly leads the standings at 10:20.

Just before eleven o’clock Max has done 25 laps and it gets dry enough to put on the slicks. After that the speed increases and Max improves his lap time, on the medium compound, to a 1:24.705. The most important thing during this test is rather covering a lot of miles in order to get to know and understand the STR10 in all its facets.

The fact that Verstappen, with his 1:24.101, is fourth in the standings behind the likes of Raikkonen (Ferrari), Hamilton (Mercedes) and Grosjean (Lotus) is pretty good, but not important. The 57 laps done flawlessly on the 4,4 kilometers long race track, that is the true contribution of Max to his team.

Jerez day 4, Wednesday morning 4 February

1  Kimi Raikkonen  	Ferrari   	1m22.537s   		(51)
2  Lewis Hamilton  	Mercedes   	1m23.633s  +1.096  	(52)
3  Romain Grosjean  	Lotus    	1m23.802s  +1.265  	(53)
4  Max Verstappen  	Toro Rosso 	1m24.101s  +1.564  	(57)
5  Marcus Ericsson  	Sauber   	1m25.081s  +2.544  	(40)
6  Felipe Massa  	Williams   	1m25.136s  +2.599  	(27)
7  Jenson Button  	McLaren   	1m28.309s  +5.772  	(14)
8  Daniil Kvyat  	Red Bull   	1m37.195s  +14.658  	(8)

Via Twitter and Facebook we'll keep you updated throughout the test followed by a full report on Verstappen.nl at the end of the day’s action. Don't forget to check out our exclusive photo album.