Max fifth in second free practice USA: “Confident”

Published on 22 October 2016 by Mike Motilall

After the third fastest time in the first free practice, Max Verstappen finished the second one in fifth place. Nico Rosberg lead the pack on the Circuit of the Americas, followed by Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull Racing), Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel. Red Bull Racing was somewhat evenly matched with the constructor’s champion.

“It wasn’t too bad today”, Max shortly sums up the Friday session for Verstappen.nl. “My short run was not great, so I decided to switch back some set up to those of the first free practice. That’s why it took so long for me to get out on track. During the long run everything went fine, so I am confident for tomorrow.” Max continues: “You can always improve yourself, so we’ll go over the data this evening in order to hopefully still make some progress.”

Asked about the key corners and his chances on COTA, Max replies: “The fast corners in the first sector are the most important, but also the slower ones in the second and third sector are important. We run with a lot of down force. This weekend it will be very hard to bring the fight to Mercedes, but we’ll do our best and see where we finish. Of course we always aim for the podium, but now it is more important to have a good qualifying.”

The track temperature in Austin is considerably higher during the second free practice compared to that of the morning session. After about some nine minutes, Max starts his first run on a new set of the soft compound tyre, this puts him briefly on P1. Before Rosberg and Hamilton better that. When everyone has gotten a time on the clock, the Dutch Formula 1-driver is the fourth fastest, behind of the Mercedes and team mate Ricciardo.

When the first thirty minutes, of the ninety minutes session, have passed, Max is out on the super soft tyres for the first time this weekend on Circuit of the Americas. A 1:38.258 puts him in third, but Ricciardo (P2) and Hamilton (P3) out do him shortly afterwards. Resulting in Max being the fifth fastest.

Again, some off track excursions were taken by some of the drivers. This round, it’s Esteban Ocon who hits the gravel trap, but he’s able to continue on. Kimi Raikkonen misses turn nineteen. Jolyon Palmer uses the gravel trap and the grass to get back on track. Carlos Sainz is able to get his car also back on track after a spin with a great amount of smoke from his tyres.

For Haas there is also a, albeit in a not so bright manner, leading role in this session. After Romain Grosjean’s car loses some body work, triggering a code red, Esteban Gutierrez’ car also disposes of carbon pieces on the asphalt. Hopefully the American team is able to get a grip on their problems and be able to show progress in front of their home crowd than their current P18 and P20.

United States Grand Prix - Circuit of the Americas - Friday 21 October

Second Free Practice

01  6 Nico Rosberg        Mercedes                    1:37.358          33
02  3 Daniel Ricciardo    Red Bull Racing TAG Heuer   1:37.552 +0.194s  33
03 44 Lewis Hamilton      Mercedes                    1:37.649 +0.291s  32
04  5 Sebastian Vettel    Ferrari                     1:38.178 +0.820s  35
05 33 Max Verstappen      Red Bull Racing TAG Heuer   1:38.258 +0.900s  27
06 27 Nico Hulkenberg     Force India Mercedes        1:38.508 +1.150s  32
07 11 Sergio Perez        Force India Mercedes        1:38.568 +1.210s  31
08 22 Jenson Button       McLaren Honda               1:38.713 +1.355s  29
09 14 Fernando Alonso     McLaren Honda               1:38.801 +1.443s  30
10  7 Kimi Räikkönen      Ferrari                     1:38.865 +1.507s  31
11 55 Carlos Sainz        Toro Rosso Ferrari          1:38.971 +1.613s  31
12 20 Kevin Magnussen     Renault                     1:39.159 +1.801s  23
13 12 Felipe Nasr         Sauber Ferrari              1:39.189 +1.831s  28
14 77 Valtteri Bottas     Williams Mercedes           1:39.197 +1.839s  34
15 26 Daniil Kvyat        Toro Rosso Ferrari          1:39.202 +1.844s  36
16 19 Felipe Massa        Williams Mercedes           1:39.281 +1.923s  30
17 30 Jolyon Palmer       Renault                     1:39.455 +2.097s  34
18  8 Romain Grosjean     Haas Ferrari                1:39.554 +2.196s  24
19 31 Esteban Ocon        MRT Mercedes                1:40.086 +2.728s  27
20 21 Esteban Gutierrez   Haas Ferrari                1:40.114 +2.756s  26
21  9 Marcus Ericsson     Sauber Ferrari              1:40.219 +2.861s  28
22 94 Pascal Wehrlein     MRT Mercedes                1:41.131 +3.773s  31

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