Verstappen takes grid penalty for Italian GP
Published on 04 September 2015 by Bas Winckels
Ahead of the Italian Grand Prix on Sunday, Max Verstappen will take a 10-place grid penalty after qualifying, following Scuderia Toro Rosso's tactical engine change. The team reckons the engine swap will benefit the Dutch youngster for the upcoming races, which are held on tracks more suitable to the STR10.
"It's quite painful to have to do the change", according to Verstappen. "We were waiting for the first two practices. If I was in the top ten, I don't think we would have done it - but we are quite far off. We know this weekend is going to be tough for us. It's not good but it's better here than somewhere else. It's a good thing because we'll have more engines for Singapore, where we can normally score."
"Max has done a good job throughout the day building-up his confidence and getting to grips with the car at this high-speed track", explains Phil Charles, chief race engineer at Scuderia Toro Rosso. "We came here expecting this to be a tricky weekend, as this circuit doesn’t suit our package, especially in the short-runs. For this reason, we’ve decided to change Max’ engine, compromising his qualifying session this weekend but hoping this will put him in a better situation for the upcoming races. This means that now both Max and Carlos will be taking grid-penalties, but we are still staying positive."
"The good news is that the long-runs don’t look too bad and we have collected lots of good tyre information that hopefully will help on Sunday", Charles continues. "The track temperature is expected to be higher on Sunday so we will carefully study all that data tonight and come up with the best possible set-up we can for Sunday."
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.
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