Max eighth again, also fastest Renault driver in FP2

Published on 19 June 2015 by Mike Motilall

During the second free practice for the Austrian Grand Prix, Max Verstappen once again puts down the eighth time. His time, a 1:10.356, was just seven tenths slower than the 1:09.600 of Sebastian Vettel, who was the fastest in his Ferrari. It’s been a long time since Mercedes failed to be dominant on the track: Nico Rosberg noted the second time, Lewis Hamilton was fifth. That Ferrari will likely to be a formidable foe for Mercedes during the race coming Sunday was proven by Raikkonen as he claimed the third position. Pastor Maldonado did well by dropping his Lotus on the fourth spot.

“On het softs it went well: the laptimes were for sure not bad”, Max explains to Verstappen.nl straight after the second free practice. “On the super softs it went really well. Only one thing, I was kept up in my final fast lap in the last sector, or else we could have noted the fifth time.” During the session you were complaining about headache on the radio. What was that about and has it been solved? “I also locked up my front tyres at a certain moment, causing the car to start vibrating. That’s what caused my headache”, says Max, who reflects quite positively on this day. "The most important thing in the first session, is being able to test all the vital things on the car. We have done that, so in the second session we were able to make the right call regarding the set up. I am very happy with that.” What are your expectations for qualifying tomorrow? “It doesn’t look bad so far. I think a top ten qualifying is possible.”

The second free practice continues where the first one stopped: many drivers end up beside the track; in search of grip that is in short supply. Max puts the pedal to the metal and puts down a 1:10.950, good enough for the fifth time at that point. His Scuderia Toro Rosso-team mate Carlos Sainz, is less successful in his quest to seek more grip and complains about this, like Max in the first session, on the radio. At that time, he was six tenths of a second slower than the Dutchman.

With an hour remaining, the drivers slowly switch to the super softs. This doesn’t mean that everyone has found, by then, their braking point: left and right drivers are ending up alongside the track during the session. From the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton to the Marussia of Will Stevens and everything in between. Sainz is the one who takes the cake, ending up in the gravel, like an expert rally-driver he steers his Toro Rosso to the escape route. Without any visible damage to his car, the Spaniard is able to continue on.

The inital time of Verstappen, on the super softs, is 1:10.356, then seven tenths behind on Rosberg. On his way to a fast lap, a mistake made in the third sector, didn’t do him much good. Nevertheless, he is still the fastest Renault-driver.

Jenson Button is forced to park his car in the pits as his engine suddenly loses power. The Honda-McLaren team is unable to find the fault, and the Britt is not to be seen on track for the remainder of the session. Vettel, having done the fastest time at that moment, is told to bring back his Ferrari slowly to the pits; as a result of gearbox problems. Apparently there is oil leaking. Roberto Mehri and Maldonado end up doing the same what Sainz did, albeit somewhere different.

After 21 laps on a set of the super softs, the front left tyre of Max is starting to degrade. Still, the Dutchman keeps putting in constant lap times, high in the 1:13’s and low in the 1:14’s. That is, on average, a second slower than Raikkonen on the soft tyre. Max straps on another set of the softs, but fails to improve his time with it. He ends the session being the fastest Renault-driver, in front of Sainz (eleventh), Daniil Kvyat (twelfth) and Daniel Ricciardo (seventeenth).

In any case, Fernando Alonso already knows for sure that he will start at the back coming Sunday: he is dealt a twenty-place grid penalty for having changed numerous parts on his engine.

Red Bull Ring – Austrian Grand Prix – Friday 19 June

 P No Driver             Team          Time     Gap   Laps 
 1  5 Sebastian Vettel   Ferrari       1:09.600         28 
 2  6 Nico Rosberg       Mercedes      1:09.611 +0.011s 50 
 3  7 Kimi Räikkönen     Ferrari       1:09.860 +0.260s 41 
 4 13 Pastor Maldonado   Lotus         1:09.914 +0.314s 44 
 5 44 Lewis Hamilton     Mercedes      1:10.137 +0.537s 49 
 6 27 Nico Hulkenberg    Force India   1:10.160 +0.560s 49 
 7  8 Romain Grosjean    Lotus         1:10.267 +0.667s 38 
 8 33 Max Verstappen     Toro Rosso    1:10.356 +0.756s 48 
 9 12 Felipe Nasr        Sauber        1:10.495 +0.895s 39 
10 11 Sergio Perez       Force India   1:10.585 +0.985s 46 
11 55 Carlos Sainz       Toro Rosso    1:10.631 +1.031s 50 
12 26 Daniil Kvyat       Red Bull      1:10.686 +1.086s 48 
13  9 Marcus Ericsson    Sauber        1:10.744 +1.144s 40 
14 77 Valtteri Bottas    Williams      1:10.746 +1.146s 34 
15 19 Felipe Massa       Williams      1:11.011 +1.411s 42 
16 14 Fernando Alonso    McLaren       1:11.517 +1.917s 17 
17  3 Daniel Ricciardo   Red Bull      1:11.676 +2.076s 38 
18 22 Jenson Button      McLaren       1:11.919 +2.319s 17 
19 28 Will Stevens       Marussia      1:12.522 +2.922s 34 
20 98 Roberto Merhi      Marussia      1:13.094 +3.494s 34 

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 Austrian Grand Prix here. 

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