Verstappen concludes FP3 in P16

Published on 05 September 2015 by Mike Motilall

In a free practice that saw little action on track, due to the circuit getting dryer by the minute, Max Verstappen noted the sixteenth time. On the Autodrome Nazionale di Monza, he was well over three-and-a-half seconds shy of Lewis Hamilton with a 1:28.215. The latter was the fastest again with a 1:24.544. Sebastian Vettel in his Ferrari, was able to hook up with the Mercedes and claimed the second spot; he was three-hundredths of a second quicker than Nico Rosberg.

"We started the third free practie in half wet conditions", Max explains to Verstappen.nl after the session. "This meant that we first went out on the intermediates. That went well and we were also topping the leader board for a long time, but that was because there were only two or three cars on track. After that, it started to get dry and we went out on the slicks." The run up to the qualification was not without issues: "Ricciardo halted during practice and it could well be that I am also bound to face the same, so we will be changing some parts before qualifying. We hope to solve it by that. It didn't look very fast this morning, but you feel that it is a track where you need a lot of top speed. We don't have that, so we are facing a troublesome weekend."

When the lights turned green for the last free practice of this weekend, a few drivers initially went out on the intermediates, due to the heavy rainfall in the early morning. The two Toro Rosso’s from Verstappen and Carlos Sainz are the first to get some timed laps during which Max relays on the radio: “It’s getting pretty dry. It’s not dry enough though for slicks, but that will not take long”. It is still damp and slippery, as was proven by Sainz. He goes straight ahead at the first chicane, at Prima Variante.

Apart from the fact the both Toro Rosso drivers have shown themselves, it takes more than half an hour before it starts to get busy on track. Verstappen is the first to head on the circuit with the slicks. Braking for Prima Variante it is clear that he is still struggling with the slippery track. It is also clear that the Dutchman is driving to the limits as he almost slips off track at Variante Ascari. Laptimes are five seconds above the times set in the first and second free practice yesterday. But those were done on a completely dry track.

With little over twenty minutes to go, Max puts down a 1:29.206, good enough for P3 at that time and putting him behind both Ferrari’s. He concludes the practice session with a run on the softer compound, doing a 1:28.215 as his fastest lap. The youngster does a total of 25 laps during this session, the most of all drivers.

Daniel Ricciardo halts in the Variante Della Roggia and is instructed by his team to do not change gear, leave the car as it is. It seems that the Ozzie in his Red Bull, is facing the same problem again as in Friday’s second free practice.

Monza - Italian Grand Prix – Saturday 5 October

 RESULTS FREE PRACTICE 3
 P No Driver             Team          Time     Gap   Laps 
 1 44 Lewis Hamilton     Mercedes      1:24.544         18 
 2  5 Sebastian Vettel   Ferrari       1:24.808 +0.264s 12 
 3  6 Nico Rosberg       Mercedes      1:24.843 +0.299s 19 
 4 77 Valtteri Bottas    Williams      1:24.946 +0.402s 14 
 5 19 Felipe Massa       Williams      1:25.165 +0.621s 14 
 6 13 Pastor Maldonado   Lotus         1:25.242 +0.698s 11 
 7  7 Kimi Räikkönen     Ferrari       1:25.244 +0.700s 13 
 8 11 Sergio Perez       Force India   1:25.515 +0.971s 14 
 9  9 Marcus Ericsson    Sauber        1:25.692 +1.148s 17 
10  8 Romain Grosjean    Lotus         1:25.747 +1.203s  8 
11 12 Felipe Nasr        Sauber        1:25.912 +1.368s 17 
12 27 Nico Hulkenberg    Force India   1:26.141 +1.597s 13 
13 14 Fernando Alonso    McLaren       1:26.632 +2.088s  9 
14 22 Jenson Button      McLaren       1:26.750 +2.206s 14 
15 28 Will Stevens       Marussia      1:28.123 +3.579s 13 
16 33 Max Verstappen     Toro Rosso    1:28.215 +3.671s 25 
17 26 Daniil Kvyat       Red Bull      1:28.591 +4.047s 10 
18 55 Carlos Sainz       Toro Rosso    1:28.628 +4.084s 23 
19 98 Roberto Merhi      Marussia      1:29.117 +4.573s 11 
20  3 Daniel Ricciardo   Red Bull      1:29.900 +5.356s  7

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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