Max ninth in final Monaco practice

Published on 23 May 2015 by Stefan Meens

After his impressive Monte Carlos début on Thursday, in which he proved once again he deserves his spot on the Formula 1 grid, Max Verstappen ended the third and final practice session in ninth place. However, his session was cut short when the Toro Rosso driver touched the barriers exiting on to the start finish straight.

At the front it was not one of the Mercedes drivers that took the top spot, but Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel with a 1:16.143. The German lapped the demanding streets course in Monaco a couple of tenths quicker than the Mercedes duo. Max Verstappen's team mate Carlos Sainz finished FP3 in fifth.

During the first part of the hour long session, both Toro Rossos head out on the soft Pirellis. The duo consistently improve on their lap times but fail to enter the top ten as the front runners are already using the super softs. Halfway into the session, Kimi Raikkonen causes a red flag after hitting the barrier into Saint Devot. The Finn is forced to park his car with a broken rear suspension.

Max is one of the first drivers to put in a lap after the session is resumed. The youngster's 1:17.788 moves him up into fourth. Unfortunately the 17-year-old is not able to improve on his time after he loses control and parks the car, rear first, into the barrier. Max is able to drive back to the pits, including a broken rear wing. There, the team analyse that Max' session is over and the Dutchman misses out on vital track time ahead of qualifying.

In the remainder of the session, Max drops to ninth as Vettel takes first ahead of Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton. A negative surprise was provided by the Williams team. P15 and 16 for Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa marks a disappointing build up to qualifying for the British team.

Monaco Grand Prix – Circuit de Monaco – Saturday 23 May

 RESULTS FREE PRACTICE 3 
 P No Driver             Team          Time       Gap    Laps
 1  5 Sebastian Vettel   Ferrari       1:16.143            27
 2  6 Nico Rosberg       Mercedes      1:16.361   +0.218   31
 3 44 Lewis Hamilton     Mercedes      1:16.705   +0.562   31
 4  3 Daniel Ricciardo   Red Bull      1:17.120   +0.977   26
 5 55 Carlos Sainz       Toro Rosso    1:17.256   +1.113   39
 6  7 Kimi Räikkönen     Ferrari       1:17.401   +1.258   11
 7 26 Daniil Kvyat       Red Bull      1:17.471   +1.328   28
 8 22 Jenson Button      McLaren       1:17.767   +1.624   28
 9 33 Max Verstappen     Toro Rosso    1:17.788   +1.645   23
10  8 Romain Grosjean    Lotus         1:17.806   +1.663   28
11 11 Sergio Perez       Force India   1:17.832   +1.689   30
12 13 Pastor Maldonado   Lotus         1:17.956   +1.813   28
13 27 Nico Hulkenberg    Force India   1:18.102   +1.959   32
14 14 Fernando Alonso    McLaren       1:18.197   +2.054   26
15 77 Valtteri Bottas    Williams      1:18.212   +2.069   29
16 19 Felipe Massa       Williams      1:18.242   +2.099   32
17 12 Felipe Nasr        Sauber        1:18.767   +2.624   38
18  9 Marcus Ericsson    Sauber        1:19.269   +3.126   37
19 28 Will Stevens       Marussia      1:21.093   +4.950   31
20 98 Roberto Merhi      Marussia      1:22.225   +6.082   30 

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You can find the schedule for the Monaco Grand Prix here. 

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