Verstappen sixth in Singapore GP: “I am disappointed with this”
Published on 18 September 2016 by Mike Motilall
Max Verstappen finished sixth at the Grand Prix in Singapore. After a poor start, the Dutchman had a troublesome evening with a lot of fights that earned him, due to some nice overtake maneuvers, the sixth spot. Nico Rosberg won the almost two hour’s lasting night race and regained the lead in the standings for the world championship. Daniel Ricciardo and Lewis Hamilton also made it to the podium.
After the race, Max, visibly disappointed, says: “The start was poor, very bad actually. Even before the start the team let me know that the clutch would not be working perfectly. When I released the clutch, I had a lot of wheel spin, then there is not much more you can do.” Are you happy with how the race progressed? “Yes, this was the best possible result. I got stuck behind the Toro Rosso’s and the McLaren which causes your tyres to go off even faster, forcing you to go back in even earlier so you are unable to do the strategy you planned in advance.” You were fighting Kvyat but ultimately gave up. Did you decide to save your tyres? “Yes, it is quite good to defend here and when you get stuck behind of someone, your tyres degrade enormously. It served no purpose, because after attacking for a couple of laps you wear off your tyres, so then I thought we should try to run as long as possible on these tyres.”
Later on in the race, Max was able to overtake Kvyat with a surprising overtake maneuver: “It had to be done at that section”, as Max explains his action. “He was preparing himself for the other sections, so I tried to stick my move on him where he didn’t expect it.” Can you nevertheless still be happy with a sixth place? “Well, it remains disappointing. In the end it doesn’t matter if you finish sixth. It is still disappointing, because it could have been so much more.”
Max' priority is to resolve the issues concerning the clutch before the next Grand Prix in Malaysia: "We need to focus ourselves in getting the start under control. It is of course very disappointing to get poor starts in a race, three times in a row.
Even before the start, the first drop out can be noted. Romain Grosjean is unable to take part in the race after having suffered many problems with his car the whole weekend. Max Verstappen, just like in Monza, had a poor start once again. It takes only a few meters before he is passed by many cars. As a result, Nico Hulkenberg gets stuck between the Toro Rosso’s and hits the pitwall hard on the straight. All of this happen right before the youngsters eyes, who miraculously is barely able to avoid Hulkenberg. Due to the debris on the track, the safety car is deployed. Rosberg is able to retain the lead from pole ahead of Ricciardo and Hamilton, Max Verstappen is in eighth.
The field is let loose again after three laps, after which Verstappen gets stuck behind of Carlos Sainze for some laps. The Spaniard has suffered some damage from the incident with Hulkenberg and is shown the ‘meatball’ flag. This means that he needs to pit to have the damaged looked at or get repaired. On lap eight, Sainz acknowledges the flag causing the Dutchman to move up to the seventh spot.
On lap 14, Max makes his first and early pitstop. The older, super soft tyres get swapped for a new set of the same. He rejoins the field in fourteenth. In the following laps, the front of the field also pits. No loss of positions can be noted, as Rosberg remains at the front and Ricciardo and Hamilton trail him.
From lap nineteen onwards, Max gets stuck behind of Kvyat. Verstappen tries to stick an overtaking move on the Russian, but he is not fooled. The two of them fight it out bitterly lap after lap for the eighth position. After many attempts, Max is unable to pass the Toro Rosso and needs to abort his attack.
Max’ second pitstop is on lap 28. Once again he gets a new set of the super soft compound tyres strapped on and rejoins in thirteenth. It doesn’t take too long before the Red Bull Racing-driver is behind of Perez. With a nice move he is able to make little work of the Mexican for P10. In the meanwhile, Lewis Hamilton is feeling Räikkönen breathing down his neck for third place. The Mercedes driver gets told numerous times on the radio to save his brakes. After a small mistake by the Englishman, Räikkönen is able to take the third spot from him.
Magnussen is a sitting duck for Verstappen as he is able to overtake the Dane on lap 38 for the sixth position. On lap 45, Max pits for the last time. On the soft compound tyre, he continues on in P9. The Dutchman is able to fully engage into battle during the final part of the race. On lap 49, he overtakes both Perez and Kvyat which puts him back in seventh. Alonso, running in sixth, is next in his sights. The youngster rapidly closes in on him and on lap 55 manages to overtake him. With a gap of 40 seconds to Vettel, who is in fifth, Verstappen is unable to gain any positions more for the remainder of the race. He takes home eight points as he eventually finishes in sixth.
At the front, Ricciardo, running on fresher tyres, is able to munch away a great deal of Rosberg’s lead, but it is not enough to threaten the German. The difference, crossing the line, is a mere 0.4 seconds. Rosberg wins, in his 200th race in his Formula 1-career, his eighth race this season and regains the lead in the world championship standings. Daniel Ricciardo finishes quite nicely in second, as Lewis Hamilton, who managed to outdo Räikkönen after his last pit stop, claims the last podium spot. The Ferrari’s of Räikkönen and Vettel both finish in fourth and fifth.
Singapore Grand Prix - Marina Bay Street Circuit - Sunday 18 September
01 6 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 61 1:55:48.950 02 3 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing TAG Heuer 61 +0.488s 03 44 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 61 +8.038s 04 7 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 61 +10.219s 05 5 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 61 +27.694s 06 33 Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing TAG Heuer 61 +71.197s 07 14 Fernando Alonso McLaren Honda 61 +89.198s 08 11 Sergio Perez Force India Mercedes 61 +111.062s 09 26 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso Ferrari 61 +111.557s 10 20 Kevin Magnussen Renault 61 +119.952s 11 21 Esteban Gutierrez Haas Ferrari 60 +1 lap 12 19 Felipe Massa Williams Mercedes 60 +1 lap 13 12 Felipe Nasr Sauber Ferrari 60 +1 lap 14 55 Carlos Sainz Toro Rosso Ferrari 60 +1 lap 15 30 Jolyon Palmer Renault 60 +1 lap 16 94 Pascal Wehrlein MRT Mercedes 60 +1 lap 17 9 Marcus Ericsson Sauber Ferrari 60 +1 lap 18 31 Esteban Ocon MRT Mercedes 59 +2 laps NC 22 Jenson Button McLaren Honda 43 DNF NC 77 Valtteri Bottas Williams Mercedes 35 DNF NC 27 Nico Hulkenberg Force India Mercedes 0 DNF NC 8 Romain Grosjean Haas Ferrari 0 DNS
