Verstappen after finishing fourth in USA GP: "My best race so far"

Published on 26 October 2015 by Mike Motilall

Max Verstappen, very handsomely, finished in fourth in the USA GP in Austin. On the Circuit of the Americas, the Dutchman drove on a track that was getting drier by the minute, many a times with the podium in his reach. Eventually, he had to settle with a spot just outside of a podium finish. After a flawless race, the youngster could add another twelve points to his score. The race was won by Lewis Hamilton, who, by doing so, secured his victory in the world championship. His team mate at Mercedes, Nico Rosberg, and Ferrari-driver Sebastian Vettel, completed the podium.

“It was a very enjoyable race, with a lot of battles. My best race so far, and in the end to be fourth, I think is a great result”, is what Max tells Verstappen.nl after the race. “Also the team with the strategy, we had a perfect strategy. It was very tricky with the soft tyres at the end, but we managed to bring it home. At the end, I didn’t fight with Vettel for third, in that stage I was saving my tyres.” The start of the race was not so great. “No, but in turn one I choose the inside line and got back three positions. I was having some trouble finding the right pace in the first lap, but afterwards I could keep up with the Ferrari’s on the intermediates. I was held up by the Force India’s, because their speed on the straight is very good. But I had some nice fights, especially with Raikkonen – although I heard that he didn’t see it that way. We didn’t make any mistakes. This was the maximum we could achieve.”

The decision to change to slicks took long to happen. “Yes, you could see some people trying it and they failed because it was still too wet,” Verstappen analyses. “So I asked the team to update me when someone was on the slicks and doing a good lap time, so we could come in also. Because you don’t want to risk anything when you are in sixth position. I think in the end we made the right call.” Lewis Hamilton turned a three-time world champion today. ”Very impressive, indeed. And he deserved it this year.” One day you will be the champ maybe? “Hopefully, we’ll see!” Regarding the question what it will take to finish on the podium, Max realistically answers: “A lot of luck.”

When the lights go out and the field is let loose, all drivers are on a new set of spotless intermediate tyres. Nico Rosberg is a little sluggish to get off his grid spot than the man in second, Lewis Hamilton. In turn one, the German runs into traffic and loses a few places. Valtteri Bottas hits Fernando Alonso and they both spin. Max has a tango with Jenson Button and Sebastian Vettel is in seventh, but consolidates his position in eight. Kvyat and Ricciardo, are both able to match the tempo dictated by the Mercedes, and are fighting for the lead.

Grosjean is hit from the rear and suffers a puncture. Felipe Nasr ends up with a broken frontwing, like Bottas. Carlos Sainz, having started from the back, is in two laps time, in tenth position. Bottas tries to make the best out of his predicament and switches from soft to slicks. His lap times on the slicks are 30 seconds slower than the rest of the field. After a few laps, he switches back to the intermediates. But he doesn’t last long: after several laps, he is forced to park his Williams in the pits because of too much damage to his car.

Nico Hulkenberg slowly falls back and is an easy prey for Verstappen, who snatches P7. In order to clean up the debris from the collision in the first lap, race control decides to engage the virtual safety car on lap five. The pack is let loose after three slow laps. Rosberg gains significantly from the restart and reclaims the third spot from Ricciardo. Not much later, Kvyat also is forced to relinquish second and Mercedes are once again one and two.

Max, in seventh, is doing lap times that are fractionally faster than the Ferrari’s in front and behind of him. At that moment, Grosjean decides to pit and change from softs to slicks. He doesn’t get long to enjoy the ride: one lap later he drops out with brake related issues.

In lap sixteen Ricciardo snatches the lead from Hamilton, who in turn sees Rosberg bearing down on him. Verstappen defends his seventh position with all his might against Kimi Raikkonen, who is heard complaining on the radio saying “that guy keeps pushing me off the track”. Max isn’t fazed and moments later he even puts his Toro Rosso ahead of Vettel’s Ferrari in sixth, but has to relinquish it back to the German. One lap later, he strikes again and passes the Ferrari, but pits to switch to slicks. Max is in sixth after his pit stop.

The battle at the front is of enormous proportions as the top four, the Red Bulls and Mercedes, constantly keep swapping positions in their fight. The lap times also keep dropping. The Renaults cannot maintain the pace dictated by the Mercedes and Ferrari’s and Hulkenberg is also closing in on Verstappen.

Felipe Massa, Raikkonen and Marcus Ericsson soon drop out, leaving only fourteen cars on track, halfway during the race. Marcus Ericsson dropping out, causes a safety car situation on lap 27. Vettel pitts and changes to the medium compound tyre. Max goes into attack mode as he pits and changes to the softer compound. Hulkenberg and Sainz both strap on the harder compound tyre, like Vettel. Max keeps the sixth position, but when Bernd Maylander brings the safety car back in, he immediately feels Hulkenberg breathing down his neck. He manages to match the Red Bulls’ speed and passes Kvyat for the fifth spot. Even Ricciardo falls victim to Verstappen, who is now in fourth. The pressure at the back is gone when Hulkenberg and Ricciardo both collide. The German needs to retire his car with a broken front right.

This means another virtual safety car, as Rosberg enters the pits enabling Max to be in third for a brief moment. After the virtual safety car, it doesn’t take the German too long to make little work of Max on the straights.

The second safety car is a fact when Kvyat, upon exiting turn nineteen, takes too much of the kerbs, slips and parks his Red Bull sideways in the wall. Vettel pits to swap the harder compound for the softer one, causing Max to be in third again. When the race gets back up to speed, Vettel easily passes the Dutchman. This will be the last position the Toro Rosso will have to give up: he finishes the race quite formidable in fourth, matching his achievement in Hungary. He scores twelve points and is tenth again in the standings with a total of 45 points.

At the front, Hamilton turns up the pressure on Rosberg, he falters and the Brit overtakes him. This proves to be a decisive maneuver: Hamilton secures his prolongation of the world championship.

Carlos Sainz, finishing in seventh also adds to the total score for Toro Rosso. McLaren almost saw both cars finishing in the points, with Jenson Button in sixth. In the final lap, however, Alonso is passed by Ricciardo, who had dropped back.

Circuit of the Americas - USA Grand Prix - Sunday 25 October 2015

 RACE RESULTS
 P Driver                 Team          Time 
 1 Lewis Hamilton     GBR Mercedes      1:50:52.703 
 2 Nico Rosberg       GER Mercedes      +2.850s 
 3 Sebastian Vettel   GER Ferrari       +3.381s 
 4 Max Verstappen     NED Toro Rosso    +22.359s 
 5 Sergio Perez       MEX Force India   +24.413s 
 6 Jenson Button      GBR McLaren       +28.058s 
 7 Carlos Sainz       ESP Toro Rosso    +30.619s 
 8 Pastor Maldonado   VEN Lotus         +32.273s 
 9 Felipe Nasr        BRA Sauber        +40.257s 
10 Daniel Ricciardo   AUS Red Bull      +53.371s 
11 Fernando Alonso    ESP McLaren       +54.816s 
12 Alexander Rossi    USA Marussia      +75.277s 
NC Daniil Kvyat       RUS Red Bull      DNF 
NC Nico Hulkenberg    GER Force India   DNF 
NC Marcus Ericsson    SWE Sauber        DNF 
NC Kimi Raikkonen     FIN Ferrari       DNF 
NC Felipe Massa       BRA Williams      DNF 
NC Romain Grosjean    FRA Lotus         DNF 
NC Valtteri Bottas    FIN Williams      DNF 
NC Will Stevens       GBR Marussia      DNF