Stunning fourth place for Max in Hungaroring thriller

Published on 26 July 2015 by Stefan Meens

Max Verstappen scored a sensational fourth place in an action packed Hungarian Grand Prix. The 17-year-old achieved his best result in Formula 1 after starting the race from ninth and mounting an impressive comeback after a poor start. Meanwhile, Sebastian Vettel claimed his second win of the season for Ferrari ahead of the Red Bulls of Daniil Kvyat and Daniel Ricciardo, with the Russian scoring his first podium in F1.

"Absolutely perfect. We already had a good first half of the season but to go into the summer break with this result is great. P4 is an incredible result”, said a delighted Max to Verstappen.nl. “I had a bad start and was boxed in. I couldn’t go to the inside nor the outside. After that I thought it was going to be a very tough race after dropping down the order so much. But I didn’t give up and kept focusing. I passed people and was able to do a very good second stint. I'm so happy!”

"Realistically I don’t think I could've been third. Then again, fourth is absolutely brilliant and I’m very happy with it. Things went my way today and it's a really good result for the team. The guys have done a great job and Toro Rosso were brilliant when it came to strategy and the pit stops.”

As the drivers line up for the start of the race, the start is aborted. Felipe Massa missed his grid spot and another warm up lap is requested by race control. When the lights do eventually dim, the Mercedes have a bad start, similar to Silverstone. Both Ferraris squeeze past and lead the field after the second corner. Eager to make up for lost positions, Lewis Hamilton tries to overtake his team mate Nico Rosberg. The manoeuvre fails and the reigning world champion takes an alternative route through the gravel, losing several places in the process.

Max' initial start is not bad but the Dutchman has nowhere to go in the pack and drops back to P13 in the first lap with Fernando Alonso and Carlos Sainz ahead of him. Max passes the former and chases after his team mate until the first round of pit stops.

During the second stint it appears Ferrari are heading for a comfortable one-two victory until Kimi Raikkonen reports a power unit issue. The Ferrari driver drops rapidly down the order and eventually has to retire. Meanwhile, Nico Hulkenberg gets a fright after his front wing disintegrates on the main straight. The Force India slams straight into the tyre wall at high speed but Hulkenberg is able to get out of the car unaided and unharmed. The debris caused by the crash forces the safety car on track. Scuderia Toro Rosso anticipates the situation and pulls Max in for his final stop, switching to the faster, softer Pirellis.

When the race resumes. Max sits right behind Valtteri Bottas. The Fin is engaged in a fight for fifth position with the two Red Bulls. In the process the Williams drivers cuts across the track. The result is Max' front wing clipping Bottas' rear tyre. The Dutchman suffers a bit of front wing damage but is able to resume his race. Bottas has to limp back to the pits with a puncture.

“After the safety car there was a lot of action ahead of me. Unfortunately I damaged my front wing after an incident with Bottas. There wasn’t much I could do as he cut into the inside line. My front wing was pretty damaged so I had a lot of understeer so I could've gone a lot faster without the damage", says Max.

In the final 20 lap sprint to the finish, several drivers receive penalties. Lewis Hamilton is awarded a drive-through after colliding with Daniel Ricciardo which helps Max to move up into fifth position. The ambitions of the Scuderia Toro Rosso youngster, whose team mate Sainz was forced to retire in the closing stages of the race, appear to be crushed when the team informs him of a drive through penalty for speeding during the safety car.

“I think there was a bit of miscommunication between me and the team. I was told I could go faster but that was probably a lap to soon”, explains Max. “When I heard I got a drive through I thought my points were gone.” Luckily the gap to sixth place Alonso is big enough and the 17-year-old rejoins the track with a five second buffer between him and the Spaniard. “On track, everyone is the same for me but it's nice to keep a world champion behind you”, smiles Max.

In the closing stages, Max earns another spot after Rosberg and Ricciardo collide in turn one. The German is forced to the pitlane with a puncture with Ricciardo pitting for a front wing. The Australian loses his second place to team mate Kvyat but holds on to the final podium spot ahead of Max.

“During the race it could’ve gone either way and I wasn’t expecting fourth. A couple of laps before the end I asked the team what position I was in. When my engineer Xevi Pujolar answered P4 I wondered what happened in front of me. I'm so incredibly happy, speechless. It feels like a dream to achieve this in my first season. I couldn’t believe it when I crossed the line. Normally I'm pretty cool and calm but this time I was unable to express my emotions on the radio.”

After the race all drivers are unanimous in dedicating their race to Jules Bianchi with all of the podium finishers paying tribute to the 25-year-old Frenchman who sadly passed away.

Hungaroring - Hungarian Grand Prix - Sunday 26 July

 Race results
 P Driver                 Team          Time
 1 Sebastian Vettel   GER Ferrari       1:46:09.985
 2 Daniil Kvyat       RUS Red Bull      +15.748s
 3 Daniel Ricciardo   AUS Red Bull      +25.084s
 4 Max Verstappen     NED Toro Rosso    +44.251s
 5 Fernando Alonso    ESP McLaren       +49.079s
 6 Lewis Hamilton     GBR Mercedes      +52.025s
 7 Romain Grosjean    FRA Lotus         +58.578s
 8 Nico Rosberg       GER Mercedes      +58.876s
 9 Jenson Button      GBR McLaren       +67.028s
10 Marcus Ericsson    SWE Sauber        +69.130s
11 Felipe Nasr        BRA Sauber        +73.458s
12 Felipe Massa       BRA Williams      +74.278s
13 Valtteri Bottas    FIN Williams      +80.228s
14 Pastor Maldonado   VEN Lotus         +85.142s
15 Roberto Merhi      ESP Marussia      +2 laps
16 Will Stevens       GBR Marussia      DNF
RT Carlos Sainz       ESP Toro Rosso    DNF
RT Kimi Raikkonen     FIN Ferrari       DNF
RT Sergio Perez       MEX Force India   DNF
RT Nico Hulkenberg    GER Force India   DNF