Max opens Monza weekend with P14

Published on 04 September 2015 by Stefan Meens

Max Verstappen kicked of the Italian Grand Prix weekend with P14 in the first free practice session. His fastest effort (1:27.591) was over three seconds adrift of Lewis Hamilton. The British World Champion led the pack followed by his Mercedes team mate Nico Rosberg in second. Sebastian Vettel was once again best of the rest in his Ferrari.

There are plenty of Max Verstappen fans in the Monza grand stands but the tifosi have to wait a while before the STR10 heads out on to the track. Nevertheless, he is the first driver to set a lap time. Slowly but gradually, the Dutchman improves his lap times whilst lapping the high speed track without issues. On the other hand, his team mate Carlos Sainz has gearbox problems. Things get worse for the Spaniard when, half an hour into the session, he loses the Toro Rosso going into the Parabolica and ends up in the gravel. The incidents causes a red flag and marks the end of Sainz’ session.

As the teams head out for their second stints, after returning their first set of Medium Pirellis to the FIA, Max does not feel comfortable with his set-up. “I feel vibrations when I’m braking. It’s the tyres or the brake pedal”, explains Max to his race engineer Xevi Pujolar.

Towards the end of one his timed laps, Max loses the rear entering the Parabolica. He is able to keep the car going but informs the team “The car doesn’t feel as good as earlier in the session. The car is too stiff over the kerbs.”
Nevertheless, Max is able to improve his lap times near the end of the session, which is concluded with a pit stop simulation.

Overall, FP1 is an uneventful session. Normally, the weekend’s first outing sees drivers overstep the limit in search of it. This time round only a few drivers exceed the track limits. Felipe Massa has a quick excursion through the Variante Ascari gravel followed by Vettel spinning at the first corner. Nico Hulkenberg appeared to have bigger problems. The Force India driver reports the smell of petrol in the car and moisture leaking into the cockpit.

McLaren Honda are facing another challenging weekend with Jenson Button being awarded a five place grid penalty with Fernando Alonso placed back ten places.

Monza - Italian Grand Prix – Friday 4 October

 RESULST FREE PRACTICE 1
 P No Driver             Team          Time       Gap       Laps 
 1 44 Lewis Hamilton     Mercedes      1:24.670             25 
 2  6 Nico Rosberg       Mercedes      1:25.133   +0.463s   22 
 3  5 Sebastian Vettel   Ferrari       1:26.258   +1.588s   17 
 4 27 Nico Hulkenberg    Force India   1:26.612   +1.942s   19 
 5 11 Sergio Perez       Force India   1:26.730   +2.060s   29 
 6  7 Kimi Räikkönen     Ferrari       1:26.783   +2.113s   16 
 7  3 Daniel Ricciardo   Red Bull      1:26.922   +2.252s   27 
 8 19 Felipe Massa       Williams      1:26.936   +2.266s   22 
 9 77 Valtteri Bottas    Williams      1:27.075   +2.405s   25 
10 13 Pastor Maldonado   Lotus         1:27.118   +2.448s   28 
11 12 Felipe Nasr        Sauber        1:27.232   +2.562s   21 
12 26 Daniil Kvyat       Red Bull      1:27.275   +2.605s   29 
13  9 Marcus Ericsson    Sauber        1:27.454   +2.784s   17 
14 33 Max Verstappen     Toro Rosso    1:27.591   +2.921s   27 
15 30 Jolyon Palmer      Lotus         1:27.669   +2.999s   28 
16 55 Carlos Sainz       Toro Rosso    1:27.907   +3.237s    8 
17 14 Fernando Alonso    McLaren       1:28.023   +3.353s   11 
18 22 Jenson Button      McLaren       1:28.423   +3.753s   12 
19 28 Will Stevens       Marussia      1:29.853   +5.183s   22 
20 98 Roberto Merhi      Marussia      1:29.911   +5.241s   12 

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 Italian Grand Prix here.

Click here to participate in a contest for the Italian GP and win Verstappen-goodies!