Max in P8 in Barcelona: “Happy with the first day”

Published on 13 May 2016 by Mike Motilall

After a solid performance, during the first free practice of the Spanish Grand Prix earlier today, Max Verstappen was able to continue his run, in the second practice, in the top ten very easily coming in at eighth. On Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, Nico Rosberg was the fastest in his Mercedes. Kimi Raikkonen came in second, ahead of Mercedes-driver Lewis Hamilton.

“I am happy with how the first day went by”, Max tells Verstappen.nl just after the session ended. “We have managed to run through all the procedures, very important was being able to do a lot of runs with the car. I haven’t been able to push the limits of the car yet, it’s all a bit different than with the Toro Rosso, also the position of the seat and steering wheel are different. But it all went fine today, I am happy with how it went. It got better and better. Getting in to Q3 is of course my target for tomorrow.”

At the start of the one and a half hour lasting session, Rio Haryanto in his Manor, is the first to get things going. Jolyon Palmer triggers a virtual safety car-situation by means of a tyre blow out on the straight after only ten minutes. Not much later, this turned to a code red in order to give the marshals the opportunity to safely recover the Renault. The Brit had to hand over control of his car to Esteban Ocon during the morning session already. During this session he also didn’t do much running.

The code red cost all the teams significant time on track, as the clock just kept on ticking. Until the closing of the session, we hadn’t seen Max out on track yet. When all is clear, the youngster heads out on a set of medium compound tyres. After his first timed lap, he is shortly second, just three tenths away from Lewis Hamilton, only to return back to the pits.

After about half an hour in the session, Jenson Button’s engine quits. The Englishman is lucky that the pit lane is downhill, enabling him to coast his way down to the McLaren team. As oppose to Max, team mate Daniel Ricciardo was busy doing a long run before coming back to the Red Bull Racing pit box for the first time.

With a little over 50 minutes to go, we see Max, dropped down the order some positions by now, on track again. On a soft set, he manages to improve to the fifth spot, just behind of Ricciardo.

When Max, with only half an hour remaining on the clock, heads out again, once more the soft compound tyres have been strapped on to his RB12. He is in for a long run, causing him not to being able to improve on his fastest time. Up ahead, dark clouds are to be seen and with fifteen minutes remaining on the clock, Raikkonen reports about rain in turn four on the radio to his team.

The rain fails to persist and the track remains dry. At the end of the session, the majority of the drivers are doing long runs. When the flag drops, Max is eighth with 32 laps to his credit. Less than two tenths of his team mate Ricciardo, who is sixth. With this performance in the back of his mind, the fast Dutchman can look forward with confidence to the rest of the weekend in Barcelona for his new employer, Red Bull Racing,  

Spanish Grand Prix - Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya - Friday 13 May

 RESULTS FREE PRACTICE 2
 P No Driver             Team          Time     Gap   Laps
 1  6 Nico Rosberg       Mercedes      1:23.922         35
 2  7 Kimi Räikkönen     Ferrari       1:24.176 +0.254s 31
 3 44 Lewis Hamilton     Mercedes      1:24.641 +0.719s 27
 4  5 Sebastian Vettel   Ferrari       1:25.017 +1.095s 35
 5 55 Carlos Sainz       Toro Rosso    1:25.131 +1.209s 39
 6  3 Daniel Ricciardo   Red Bull      1:25.194 +1.272s 37
 7 14 Fernando Alonso    McLaren       1:25.342 +1.420s 31
 8 33 Max Verstappen     Red Bull      1:25.375 +1.453s 31
 9 11 Sergio Perez       Force India   1:25.437 +1.515s 32
10 27 Nico Hulkenberg    Force India   1:25.453 +1.531s 35
11 77 Valtteri Bottas    Williams      1:25.708 +1.786s 30
12 22 Jenson Button      McLaren       1:25.893 +1.971s 20
13  8 Romain Grosjean    Haas          1:25.899 +1.977s 33
14 20 Kevin Magnussen    Renault       1:26.244 +2.322s 40
15 26 Daniil Kvyat       Toro Rosso    1:26.375 +2.453s 44
16 19 Felipe Massa       Williams      1:26.491 +2.569s 36
17 30 Jolyon Palmer      Renault       1:26.770 +2.848s 16
18 94 Pascal Wehrlein    Manor         1:26.960 +3.038s 40
19 88 Rio Haryanto       Manor         1:27.252 +3.330s 39
20 12 Felipe Nasr        Sauber        1:27.812 +3.890s 40
21 21 Esteban Gutierrez  Haas          1:28.205 +4.283s  9
22  9 Marcus Ericsson    Sauber        1:28.501 +4.579s 42 

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