Over steering hampers good classification final practice Bahrain

Published on 18 April 2015 by Mike Motilall

All is not going well for Max Verstappen in Bahrain. On Saturday, during the final free practice, the fourteenth spot was the best he could make of it all. The Scuderia Toro Rosso-driver suffered a lot of over steer and was not able to fix the issue within the one hour of free practice. In eleven laps, a 1:36.684 was his fastest laptime, two seconds away from Lewis Hamilton, who in turn was being chased by Sebastian Vettel in his Ferrari.

“The front of the car has too much grip. That’s why in the slower corners, I am over steering”, says Max. “It is incredible how much over steer there is. I only need to touch the steering wheel and I am over steering already.”

When in Sakhir the third free practice commences, the temperature is about 30 degrees centigrade and there is a fierce wind blowing. After about fifteen minutes, Max heads out on the asphalt and on the medium compound he notes a 1:37.991. “My rear tyres are wearing off very fast. My lap time will surely not improve”, the Dutchman relays on the radio to his team, and pits after five laps.

Moments later, Daniil Kvyat’s Red Bull spins in turn four, after the Russian lost control of the rear of his car. As a consequence, he starts rolling backwards into the gravel. This briefly causes a red flag situation, giving the Red Bull a chance to be safely recovered.

After Max does a second run on the same set of mediums, the final fifteen minutes is nigh and the first set of softs are strapped on. Subsequently, the lap times drop. Hamilton takes care of business, after the Ferrari’s of both Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel were topping the leaderboard.

Also 17-year-old Verstappen improves his lap time on the softs to a 1:36.684. At that moment, good enough for P9. But even so, the issue with over steering in the slower corners, still haunts him. Max is therefore not able to maximize his performance in the car.

While Red Bull has managed to get Kvyat back on track again, for another lap, Rosberg has claimed P3. That Hamilton is leading again, is no surprise, but the lead on Vettel (Ferrari) is a bare minimum: a mere seven-hundredths. The second Ferrari (Raikkonen), grabs the fourth spot, in front of the both Williams-drivers. The second STR10, Carlos Sainz’, is seventeenth.

Results Bahrain Grand Prix - Bahrain International Circuit - Saturday 18 April

 P No Driver 		 Team 			Time     Gap   Laps 
 1 44 Lewis Hamilton 	 Mercedes 		1:34.599       13 
 2  5 Sebastian Vettel 	 Ferrari 		1:34.668 0.069 14 
 3  6 Nico Rosberg 	 Mercedes 		1:34.968 0.369 16 
 4  7 Kimi Raikkonen 	 Ferrari 		1:35.141 0.542 13 
 5 77 Valtteri Bottas 	 Williams 		1:35.393 0.794 18 
 6 19 Felipe Massa 	 Williams 		1:35.471 0.872 15 
 7 13 Pastor Maldonado   Lotus 			1:36.307 1.708 14 
 8  3 Daniel Ricciardo 	 Red Bull Racing 	1:36.335 1.736 8 
 9 27 Nico Hulkenberg 	 Force India 		1:36.421 1.822 13 
10 12 Felipe Nasr 	 Sauber 		1:36.429 1.830 18 
11 22 Jenson Button 	 McLaren 		1:36.488 1.889 14 
12 26 Daniil Kvyat 	 Red  Bull Racing 	1:36.548 1.949 7 
13  9 Marcus Ericsson 	 Sauber 		1:36.612 2.013 17 
14 33 Max Verstappen 	 Toro Rosso		1:36.684 2.085 11 
15 11 Sergio Perez 	 Force India 		1:36.727 2.128 14 
16 14 Fernando Alonso 	 McLaren 		1:36.899 2.300 11 
17 55 Carlos Sainz 	 Toro Rosso 		1:36.979 2.380 14 
18  8 Romain Grosjean 	 Lotus 			1:37.151 2.552 17 
19 28 Will Stevens 	 Marussia 		1:39.745 5.146 12 
20 98 Roberto Merhi 	 Marussia 		1:40.541 5.942 14

On Twitter and Facebook we'll keep you updated throughout the weekend followed by a full report on Verstappen.nl at the end of the day’s action. You can find the schedule for the Grand Prix here.