Max ends productive test at Spielberg in third

Published on 23 June 2015 by Stefan Meens

Two days after finishing in eighth place during the Austrian Grand Prix, Max Verstappen once again hit the Red Bull Ring in his STR10. During the first day of the two-day collective mid-season test, the Dutchman set the third fastest time, clocking 97 laps.

The Tuesday, the day that Max is scheduled to drive, gets off to a slow start with the rain preventing the drivers from running. It forces the teams to negotiate an extension to the test session. After weighing several solutions the decision is made to extend the Tuesday session with two hours. In hindsight a wise decision as the weather clears and the teams are able to rake up plenty of miles.

Max: “It’s a shame we lost so much of the morning because of the rain, but it was a good decision to extend the test by a couple of hours tonight to allow everyone to try and catch up with their programmes. Eventually, we managed to do some useful work, with quite a few laps, to gather extra data, which along with the information we got from the race weekend, will be very useful for the coming races.”

The drivers joining Max are Stoffel Vandoorne (McLaren), Antonio Fuocco (Ferrari), Susie Wolff (Williams), Esteban Ocon (Force India), Pascal Wehrlein (Mercedes) and Raffaele Marciello (Sauber).

With the rain preventing any timed laps in the morning, the Toro Rosso driver completes his first couple of installation laps right after the lunch break. The track is still damp stopping the drivers from using slicks. Nearer half past three, the conditions have improved enough for the dry weather tyres to be bolted on. Max heads out and consistently improves his lap times.

A spot of rain at 4pm prompts the drivers back into the pits but the on-track action is not halted for long as most drivers head out on slicks shortly after. Antonio Fuocco is the first driver to bring about a red flag that is not caused by a downpour. The Italian slides of the track at the end of the main straight and damages the Ferrari's nose and front suspension. After the track is cleared and the session resumes, Max heads out on the soft Pirellis to set his fastest lap of the day, a 11:11.328.

The first test day ends like it started: with rain. Nevertheless, the drivers continue lapping the Red Bull Ring until the session finishes at 8pm local time. Max ends the day in third completing 97 laps, more than any other driver. Reigning DTM champion Marco Wittman will drive the STR10 during the second and final test day on Wednesday.

Red Bull Ring - Collective test - Tuesday 23 June

P Driver             Team	  Time       Laps
1 Pascal Wehrlein    Mercedes     01:11.005    67
2 Esteban Ocon       Force India  01:11.192    75
3 Max Verstappen     Toro Rosso   01:11.328    97
4 Antonio Fuoco	     Ferrari      01:11.331    71
5 Romain Grosjean    Lotus        01:11.509    45
6 Pierre Gasly       Red Bull     01:11.757    80
7 Raffaelo Marciello Sauber       01:11.826    53
8 Stoffel Vandoorne  McLaren      01:12.530    76
9 Susie Wolff        Williams     01:13.248    39