Faultless Max makes most of Canadian Grand Prix

Published on 08 June 2015 by Stefan Meens

Max Verstappen finished his first Canadian Grand Prix in fifteenth. Despite starting from the back of the grid and a ten second penalty, the Dutchman worked his way up the field by several decisive overtakes on the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. At the front, Mercedes dominated the race with Lewis Hamilton making the most of his pole position by claiming the victory ahead of Nico Rosberg and Williams' Valtteri Bottas.

Max: “I had a good start and first few laps, where I was able to catch the guys in front of me even though I was on the harder tyre, so we can be happy with my first stint. But after my pit-stop, where of course I lost time due to the 10-second penalty, it became a bit of a lonely race.”

When the lights go out, the top five defend their starting positions successfully whilst Max and Sebastian Vettel squeeze past the Manors in the first couple of corners. After the opening lap, Max sits in P17.

Vettel's speed advantage sees the German move quickly through the field. Max, on the other hand, is forced to be more patient. He passes Felipe Nasr in the Sauber with a swift move down into the first corner. Max continues his race by chasing down Fernando Alonso. The McLaren-Honda is no match for the STR10 and Max takes fourteenth place form the Spaniard.

A couple of laps later, the 17-year-old youngster drops back a place. Sebastian Vettel is again working his way up the order, after an early pit stop threw the Ferrari driver back.

As the race reaches its halfway point, Max, in P9, is matching the lap times of the drivers around him. An impressive performance considering the Dutchman is on a set of softs compared to others' super soft pirellis. Nevertheless, Max is unable to fend of Daniil Kvyat and Sergio Perez and therefore makes his only stop of the race from twelfth place. The stop takes agonisingly long due to the ten second penalty. Max rejoins the race, on a set of super softs, in sixteenth.

Elsewhere on track, Germans Vettel and Nico Hulkenberg dice for P7. The drivers are neck and neck going into the final chicane. The Force India driver has to take evasive action sending him into a spin. Vettel takes the escape route and rejoins the track in seventh. Soon after, another incidents near the final turn takes place. Romain Grosjean drivers into Will Stevens after lapping the Manor, resulting in a five second penalty for the French Lotus driver.

Meanwhile, Max, after his pit stop, closes the gap to Marcus Ericsson in the Sauber. “I caught up with Ericsson but I couldn’t get past him on the straights, so I decided to stay behind him, not destroy my tyres and save the engine.”

At the front, Hamilton comfortably holds his lead beating Rosberg to victory. Valtteri Bottas makes the most of Kimi Raikkonen's mistake, a spin at the hairpin, to clinch third. Sebastian Vettel, after an impressive march through the field, completes the top five. Carlos Sainz finished in eleventh, emphasising the difficult weekend for Scuderia Toro Rosso.

In the end, Max extracted the most out of his Canadian Grand Prix. “I'm glad this race is done. But there's some difficult ones coming up. But we'll give it our best in Austria to maximize our result.”

Canadian Grand Prix – Circuit Gilles Villeneuve – Sunday 7 June

 RACE RESULT
 P Driver                 Team          Time 
 1 Lewis Hamilton     GBR Mercedes      1:31:53.145 
 2 Nico Rosberg       GER Mercedes      +2.285s 
 3 Valtteri Bottas    FIN Williams      +40.666s 
 4 Kimi Räikkönen     FIN Ferrari       +45.625s 
 5 Sebastian Vettel   GER Ferrari       +49.903s 
 6 Felipe Massa       BRA Williams      +56.381s 
 7 Pastor Maldonado   VEN Lotus         +66.664s 
 8 Nico Hulkenberg    GER Force India   +1 lap 
 9 Daniil Kvyat       RUS Red Bull      +1 lap 
10 Romain Grosjean    FRA Lotus         +1 lap 
11 Sergio Perez       MEX Force India   +1 lap 
12 Carlos Sainz       ESP Toro Rosso    +1 lap 
13 Daniel Ricciardo   AUS Red Bull      +1 lap 
14 Marcus Ericsson    SWE Sauber        +1 lap 
15 Max Verstappen     NED Toro Rosso    +1 lap 
16 Felipe Nasr        BRA Sauber        +2 laps 
17 Will Stevens       GBR Marussia      +4 laps 
RT Roberto Merhi      ESP Marussia      DNF 
RT Jenson Button      GBR McLaren       DNF 
RT Fernando Alonso    ESP McLaren       DNF