Verstappen very happy with P8 in Singapore
Published on 19 September 2015 by Mike Motilall
Max Verstappen noted, during qualifying in the Singapore Grand Prix, the eight fastest time. Under the artificial lights of the Marina Bay circuit, the Dutchman clocked a 1:45.798, 1.9 seconds slower than Sebastian Vettel, who was the fastest in his Ferrari. It’s the first time this year, that there isn’t a Mercedes on pole position at the start of a race. Fact is that, for the last 23 races, a Mercedes was to be found starting from the number one spot. Daniel Ricciardo is second in his Red Bull, followed by Kimi Raikkonen. He is ahead of Daniil Kvyat. The first Mercedes, in the race, is found in fifth on the grid.
“It couldn’t have gone better”, Max tells Verstappen.nl afterwards. “The tyres were somewhat cold in Q3, so we were not able to do the fastest lap time possible. But it is important that we are ahead of our direct competitors Lotus and Force India. I am very happy with that.” After FP3 it wasn’t all honky-dory. “In the third free practice, we still had some issues with the tyres, but luckily we were able to solve those before qualifying. Eventually, the balance in the car was very good.”
The race in Singapore is always a long race. Are you aware of that? “Yes, definitely! Yesterday, I did some long runs and those were pretty hot already, so it will be very demanding.” What do you expect of the race itself? “There is a Williams just ahead of us, not far away, so that promises to be a good fight.” Do you also expect to bring the fight to the Mercedes? “Well, that will be difficult. I think that we need to focus ourselves on the Williams first.”
When the lights turn green for Q1, almost the entire field, immediately heads out on the softs to do a lap. Only the Manors make it to the track on the supersofts. Max does a 1:48.159, good enough for the second fastest time, but drops to ninth when everyone finished their lap. What’s remarkable, is that the Mercedes are not up to par. It is Sebastian Vettel who astounds the rest of the pack, by being a whopping seven tenths of a second quicker. Max Verstappen’s teammate at Toro Rosso, Carlos Sainz, found himself to be in the knockout zone as he was sixteenth.
Verstappen heads out on the supersofts and improves his time to a 1:46.483, being faster than anyone in the third sector. This is eventually good enough for the ninth place, enabling the youngster to make it through to Q2 with flying colours. Those that fail to make the cut, are: Will Stevens and Alexander Rossi from Manor, Marcus Ericsson and Felipe Nasr from Sauber and Pastor Maldonado in the Lotus. Both Manors however, still need to take a five place grid penalty into account due to the changing of a gearbox. This will not impact the grid much though.
In Q2, Max opens with a 1:45.868; just two tenths slower than the times set by both Mercedes at that moment. He is also able to shave off two tenths more of his time to a 1:45.635. That is fifteen thousandths faster than Lewis Hamilton and eighteen more than Nico Rosberg; securing his passage through to the third part of qualifying.
During an all-out effort to make it to Q3 from P14, Carlos Sainz eventually hits the wall in his Toro Rosso. He damages his left rear suspension and loses a part of his front wing. This means that, together with the McLarens from Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso, he won’t go through to the third part of qualifying. This also applies to Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg in the Force India.
During the last twelve minutes, in which pole position gets claimed, Max takes his time. As the rest of his competitors gets a time on the board, he saves his tyres and heads out just three minutes before the end of the session, for his only run. He does a 1:45.798 but goes very wide in the last corner. This gets him the eight spot. The Ferrari’s and Red Bulls are the ones calling the shots at the front, ahead of both Mercedes. Verstappen is behind of Valtteri Bottas, who is in seventh in his Williams. Felipe Massa and Romain Grosjean will be starting from behind of Max.
Marina Bay Street Circuit - Singapore Grand Prix - 19 September 2015:
RESULTS QUALIFYING P No Driver Team Q1 Q2 Q3 Laps 1 5 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1:46.017 1:44.743 1:43.885 14 2 3 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull 1:46.166 1:45.291 1:44.428 17 3 7 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 1:46.467 1:45.140 1:44.667 17 4 26 Daniil Kvyat Red Bull 1:45.340 1:44.979 1:44.745 15 5 44 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:45.765 1:45.650 1:45.300 16 6 6 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:46.201 1:45.653 1:45.415 17 7 77 Valtteri Bottas Williams 1:46.231 1:45.887 1:45.676 20 8 33 Max Verstappen Toro Rosso 1:46.483 1:45.635 1:45.798 16 9 19 Felipe Massa Williams 1:46.879 1:45.701 1:46.077 19 10 8 Romain Grosjean Lotus 1:46.860 1:45.805 1:46.413 18 11 27 Nico Hulkenberg Force India 1:46.669 1:46.305 12 12 14 Fernando Alonso McLaren 1:46.600 1:46.328 12 13 11 Sergio Perez Force India 1:46.576 1:46.385 13 14 55 Carlos Sainz Toro Rosso 1:46.465 1:46.894 13 15 22 Jenson Button McLaren 1:46.891 1:47.019 12 16 12 Felipe Nasr Sauber 1:46.965 8 17 9 Marcus Ericsson Sauber 1:47.088 6 18 13 Pastor Maldonado Lotus 1:47.323 6 19 28 Will Stevens Marussia 1:51.021 8 20 53 Alexander Rossi Marussia 1:51.523 8
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