Verstappen third in German GP: “Happy to be on the podium”
Published on 31 July 2016 by Mike Motilall
Max Verstappen finished the German Grand Prix beautifully in third place, giving him his fourth podium finish in his young Formula 1-career. The flawless Lewis Hamilton and team mate Ricciardo crossed the line before him. During the race, Max was battling with Nico Rosberg. The German got a 5-seconds time penalty for pushing Verstappen off track, resulting in him finishing in fourth.
“It was a good race”, says Max during the podium interview, where he was loudly applauded by thousands of Dutch fans. “I had a good start and from there on we had a good pace. I was really enjoying it. Then we decided to split the strategies of Ricciardo and myself, so I let him pass. We worked well as a team together today and also managed to do the pit stops well. To have a double podium and more points than Ferrari, was absolutely the main focus today and that is what we achieved. I am happy to be on the podium again and it will be a warm welcome back home in the Netherlands”, Verstappen happily concludes.
When Max, after his second stop, was overtaken by Rosberg, the Red Bull Racing-driver had to go off track in order to avoid a collision. “Rosberg came from quite a distance and braked very late. For a moment I thought that he was going to hit me, so I left some room. But he didn’t turn and just drove straight on. So I had to go off track to avoid a crash.” Asked about the many Dutch fans in Germany and the next race in Belgium, Max concludes by saying: “I think that there were more Dutch flags here than German ones, very nice to see. Spa-Francorchamps is great to drive at and hopefully our car will perform well there. At Hockenheim, we didn’t expect to be that competitive and at Spa it should normally be even better. So hopefully we’ll have a great weekend there just as we had here.”
Many Dutch flags were to be seen at the Hockenheim race track, where the German Grand Prix got underway in dry conditions. Thousands of Dutch fans see Nico Rosberg get a poor start off the line and dropping back to fourth place. Max Verstappen on the other hand, has a rocket start and passes team mate Ricciardo from the outside in the first corner which puts him second. Palmer runs into Massa at the hairpin corner, but both are able to continue on. The rest of the field gets round the first lap unscathed. Rosberg is pushing Ricciardo but is unable to make a move stick.
On lap nine, Max reports on the radio: “I am beginning to struggle with my rear tyres.” He manages to do a few more laps before he eventually pits to get some new super softs strapped on. A very fast pit stop in 2.2 seconds puts him seventh when he gets back on track. Team mate Ricciardo switches a lap later to the softs, just like Lewis Hamilton, meaning Verstappen and Rosberg are on a different tyre strategy. When all the drivers have done their stops, Max is second again. On lap nineteen, Max gets told by his team that Hamilton is doing the same lap times as he is. Max is some seven seconds astray from Hamilton and is another one-and-a-half seconds up on Ricciardo.
Max reports, on lap 21, that he is not comfortable with the super softs tyres on his car. “This is definitely not the race tyre”, the Dutchman tells his team on the radio. However, Max is able to maintain the tempo and on lap 29 he comes in to switch to the soft compound tyre. Exiting the pits, Nico Rosberg is too close for comfort. With a bold overtake maneuver, he is able to pass the Dutchman, but in doing so he pushes the youngster off track. The incident gets scrutinized by the stewards of the race, who eventually slap Rosberg with a 5-seconds time penalty that he needs to take at his next pit stop. Rosberg then gets a move on to create a gap to Verstappen greater than five seconds. Ricciardo, on the faster super soft tyre, is pushing Verstappen and eventually overtakes him on lap 40. Max is able to keep up with the tempo quite reasonably but complains about understeer.
On lap 45, Rosberg pits for his change of tyres and also takes his 5-seconds time penalty. A lap later, Max also pits for his final stop. He switches to the super softs and rejoins behind of team mate Ricciardo and well ahead of Rosberg, in third place.
In the closing stages of the race, the order of the cars at the front remains the same. The dominant Lewis Hamilton scores his fifth victory. Ricciardo is second, Verstappen takes third and his fourth podium this season. The double podium is an excellent result for the Red Bull Racing-team that has now passed Ferrari in the constructor’s standings. Nico Rosberg, despite his penalty, finishes in fourth and ahead of the both Ferrari’s of Vettel and Raikkonen.
German Grand Prix - Hockenheim - Sunday 31 July
RACE RESULTS 01 44 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 67 1:30:44.200 02 3 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing TAG Heuer 67 +6.996s 03 33 Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing TAG Heuer 67 +13.413s 04 6 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 67 +15.845s 05 5 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 67 +32.570s 06 7 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 67 +37.023s 07 27 Nico Hulkenberg Force India Mercedes 67 +70.049s 08 22 Jenson Button McLaren Honda 66 +1 lap 09 77 Valtteri Bottas Williams Mercedes 66 +1 lap 10 11 Sergio Perez Force India Mercedes 66 +1 lap 11 21 Esteban Gutierrez Haas Ferrari 66 +1 lap 12 14 Fernando Alonso McLaren Honda 66 +1 lap 13 8 Romain Grosjean Haas Ferrari 66 +1 lap 14 55 Carlos Sainz Toro Rosso Ferrari 66 +1 lap 15 26 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso Ferrari 66 +1 lap 16 20 Kevin Magnussen Renault 66 +1 lap 17 94 Pascal Wehrlein MRT Mercedes 65 +2 laps 18 9 Marcus Ericsson Sauber Ferrari 65 +2 laps 19 30 Jolyon Palmer Renault 65 +2 laps 20 88 Rio Haryanto MRT Mercedes 65 +2 laps NC 12 Felipe Nasr Sauber Ferrari 57 DNF NC 19 Felipe Massa Williams Mercedes 36 DNF
