Verstappen twelfth in first free practice Chinese Grand Prix

Published on 10 April 2015 by Mike Motilall

Max Verstappen finished twelfth in the first free practice of the Chinese Grand Prix. The young Dutchman drove a total of 28 laps in his Scuderia Toro Rosso and noted a 1:41.575. Being two-and-a-half seconds slower than the fastest time, which had been set by Lewis Hamilton. With a 1:39.033, the Brit, in his Mercedes, was the fastest man in this free practice. Carlos Sainz, Max’ team mate at Toro Rosso, finished eighth.

When at 4 o’clock Dutch time, the lights in the pit lane turn green, we see a familiar free practice sight: almost every driver heads out on track to get prepared. Max Verstappen also.

The Brit Joylon Palmer has taken over the steering wheel from Romain Grosjean, but loses quite quickly control of his Lotus and is going backwards. Sainz suffers the same fate in the same corner. Nevertheless, both are able to continue. Max is on track by now for some flying laps but reports on the radio that he is suffering from a lot of vibrations in his Toro Rosso. During the first half hour there are a lot of drivers that are pushing the limits. Left and right wheels are locking up and drivers are ending up beside the track.

After the first half hour, when the initial set of tyres are to handed back over to Pirelli, Max is ninth with a 1:42.199.  His team mate Sainz is fifth. Both Scuderia Toro Rosso drivers have managed to keep their Red Bull ‘big brothers’ behind of them; they decided to install last year’s brakes on their cars. Lewis Hamilton is last due to braking issue that causes him to get off track. The Mercedes however, quickly take care of business as the Brit wastes no time and tops the leaderboard. An astounding half a second faster than Nico Rosberg, who, by then, had already done some considerable amount of laps.

With only half an hour left in the first free practice, Max finishes a long run in his STR10. He has noted a 1:41.575 but has gotten off track at the end of the straight in the hairpin. Up till then, the Dutchman has nineteen laps to his credit and is just behind of Sebastian Vettel, Malaysian’s Grand Prix winner two weeks ago.

It is clear that Max is pushing the limits: with five minutes remaining, he locks up his tyres causing them to smoke at the end to the straight as he misses the hairpin. The youngster doesn’t improve on his time and ends this session twelfth. At the front the Mercedes have both created a gap, leaving the Ferrari’s third and fourth.

Many teams are using this free practice to test new front wings: Sauber, Mercedes and Williams are seen with different front wings on track. At the back of the field Manor Marussia’s have managed to do a significant amount of laps. Speed is still an issue, as only Will Steven’s car is within the 107% rule of the fastest time. For a free practice that is not a big thing, but the team need to get their act together before also Roberto Mehri is able to qualify for Sunday’s race.

Chinese Grand Prix – Shanghai International Circuit – Friday 10 April

FREE PRACTICE 1 RESULTS 

P No Name 		Team 			Time 	 Gap   Laps 
 1 44 Lewis Hamilton 	Mercedes 		1:39.033       21 
 2  6 Nico Rosberg 	Mercedes 		1:39.574 0.541 21 
 3  5 Sebastian Vettel 	Ferrari 		1:40.157 1.124 18 
 4  7 Kimi Raikkonen 	Ferrari 		1:40.661 1.628 27 
 5 12 Felipe Nasr 	Sauber 			1:41.012 1.979 18 
 6  3 Daniel Ricciardo 	Red Bull Racing 	1:41.029 1.996 21 
 7 26 Daniil Kvyat 	Red Bull Racing 	1:41.097 2.064 24 
 8 55 Carlos Sainz 	Toro Rosso 		1:41.112 2.079 23 
 9 77 Valtteri Bottas 	Williams 		1:41.303 2.270 23 
10 19 Felipe Massa 	Williams	 	1:41.304 2.271 17 
11 13 Pastor Maldonado 	Lotus 			1:41.335 2.302 23 
12 33 Max Verstappen 	Toro Rosso 		1:41.575 2.542 28 
13 22 Jenson Button 	McLaren 		1:41.845 2.812 19 
14  9 Marcus Ericsson 	Sauber 			1:41.918 2.885 24 
15 30 Jolyon Palmer 	Lotus 			1:41.967 2.934 25 
16 11 Sergio Perez 	Force India 		1:42.141 3.108 22 
17 14 Fernando Alonso 	McLaren 		1:42.161 3.128 20 
18 27 Nico Hulkenberg 	Force India 		1:42.184 3.151 19 
19 28 Will Stevens 	Marussia 		1:45.379 6.346 18 
20 98 Roberto Merhi 	Marussia 		1:46.443 7.410 20