Max P9 third free practice Malaysia

Published on 28 March 2015 by Mike Motilall

Max Verstappen concluded the first day of the Malaysian Grand Prix, on the Sepang International Circuit, very pleased. In the first two free practices, the young Dutchman worked his way, unscaved, up to the seventh and eight position; in a field that has grown to twenty cars now.

As oppose to the free practices on Friday, in the third and final practice on Saturday morning, the drivers only have one hour to their disposal. Max drove three runs in his Scuderia Toro Rosso and his best time, 1:40.989, resulted in the ninth position. Nico Rosberg closed the session as the quickest, just in front of Lewis Hamilton, his teammate at Mercedes, and Kimi Raikkonen, who claimed the third spot in his Ferrari.

When the lights turn green, it doesn’t take long before Max heads out for his first run on the harder compound tyres. The conditions are tricky, but Max notes the third time with a 1:42.361 and 1:42.168, behind both the cars of Red Bull Racing. Shortly after, Carlos Sainz sees an opportunity to take off several tenths off of Max’ time, enabling his Spanish team mate to put him back one spot.

During the session we see many drivers struggling with the front end of their cars. This is evident as the front wheels are locked during braking. Max is also one to report on the radio: “It is so easy to lock up the front wheels, incredible!” In his second run, on a used set of the harder compound, Max is unable to improve on his time and after the first half hour we find Max on P9. During his second run, Max relays to the team that he is suffering from a lot of vibration in his tyres.

In the last ten minutes of the session, we see everybody heading out for a run on the medium compound, to be fully prepared for the qualification. As Max, as one of the last drivers, is getting ready for his run; he has fallen back, by now, to P17. He manages to progress and with a time of 1:40.989, he ends the session just behind his team mate on P9. It seems that the young Dutchman is struggling more with his STR10 than he did on Friday. Something the Scuderia Toro Rosso team will need to work on before the qualification.

At the front it is business as usual, both Mercedes are almost half a second away from Raikkonen's and Sebastian Vettel’s Ferrari’s. They, in turn, are followed by Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas who claimed fifth and sixth position in their Williams. Daniel Ricciardo, on P7, is the only representative of Red Bull Racing in the top ten. Marcus Ericsson, preceded by the two Toro Rosso’s, completes the top ten.

Results of the third free practice of the Malaysian GP:

P 	No 	Driver 			Team 		  Best Time 	Gap  	Laps
1 	6 	Nico Rosberg 		Mercedes 	  1:39.690 	  	13
2 	44 	Lewis Hamilton 	        Mercedes 	  1:39.874 	0.184 	10
3   	7 	Kimi Raikkonen 	        Ferrari 	  1:40.245 	0.555 	9
4 	5 	Sebastian Vettel 	Ferrari 	  1:40.266 	0.576 	13
5 	19 	Felipe Massa 		Williams 	  1:40.391 	0.701 	14
6 	77 	Valtteri Bottas 	Williams 	  1:40.406 	0.716 	15
7 	3 	Daniel Ricciardo 	Red Bull Racing   1:40.590 	0.900 	19
8 	55 	Carlos Sainz 		Toro Rosso 	  1:40.601 	0.911 	19
9  	33 	Max Verstappen 	        Toro Rosso 	  1:40.989 	1.299 	18
10 	9 	Marcus Ericsson 	Sauber 		  1:41.200 	1.510 	19
11 	8 	Romain Grosjean 	Lotus 		  1:41.206 	1.516 	16
12 	13 	Pastor Maldonado 	Lotus 		  1:41.592 	1.902 	18
13 	26 	Daniil Kvyat 		Red Bull Racing   1:41.776 	2.086 	14
14 	27 	Nico Hulkenberg 	Force India 	  1:41.804 	2.114 	15
15 	14 	Fernando Alonso 	McLaren 	  1:41.991 	2.301 	13
16 	11 	Sergio Perez 		Force India 	  1:42.100 	2.410 	14
17 	12 	Felipe Nasr 		Sauber 		  1:42.117 	2.427 	18
18 	22 	Jenson Button 	        McLaren 	  1:42.319 	2.629 	13
19 	98 	Roberto Merhi 	        Marussia          1:46.647 	6.957 	9
20 	28 	Will Stevens 		Marussia 	  1:47.059 	7.369 	6