Max P6 in second free practice: “Positive first day”

Published on 11 November 2016 by Mike Motilall

Max Verstappen finished the second free practice at Interlagos in sixth place, seven tenths a stray from Lewis Hamilton. With the Mercedes ahead and the Williams-duo surprisingly as the second team, Red Bull Racing followed in third. Verstappen was exactly one tenth down on his team mate. But on the other hand, the race pace of Max looked quite promising again.

“The first day here in Brazil was positive. The first free practice went very well”, Max tells Verstappen.nl. “After that we made some changes on the car, but they didn’t work out well for the short run in the second free practice. The long run was okay on the other hand, that looked pretty good.”

“Interlagos is a track that is difficult for the tyres”, Max explains when asked about the degradation of the soft tyres. “It is quite normal that the degradation is a bit higher on the softs here. In general they performed well, as expected.” Asked about his chances, Max answers: “Mercedes is too quick, but after them it’s us. Maybe in the rain, we have a chance to beat them, so hopefully it will fall Sunday. That would make it exciting.”

Max starts his first run on the medium compound tyres and reports on the radio that wind is getting in his helmet despite having a closed visor.  Nevertheless, he clocks the second fastest time, a tenth a stray from his Australian team mate. While Kimi Raikkonen and Carlos Sainz tango with each other, resulting in it getting investigated by the stewards, Max improves to a 1:13.787, but remains in second. Not much later Hamilton, Rosberg and Bottas better his time, while Max is in the pits.

After about half an hour, the soft tyres are brought out. Ricciardo clocks the fastest tie, but that is snatched away by Felipe Massa, who is driving his last home race in front of the Brazilian crowd. Max switches to the softs and gets out on track, despite a nice drift in turn two, he improves himself to P4 (1:12.928). But the Mercedes have yet to do their running on the softs. Hamilton and Rosberg venture out in battle mode to hunt down the fastest time, demoting Max to P6.

With still over fifteen minutes remaining, Max continues his schedule on a scrubbed set of soft tyres. By now all the teams have switched focus to the long runs in preparation of the race. Improving of lap times is now of  lesser importance.

With a little less than ten minutes remaining, Fernando Alonso is told to shut down his McLaren due to technical problems. Behind the guard rails he makes the best of a bad situation and positions himself behind the control and monitor of a remotely controlled camera.

By now, Max has a slight oversteer moment in the corners and heads back for the pits after sixteen laps on the same set of softs, only to switch back to another scrubbed set of mediums. On those, the Dutchman completes some very competitive lap times, hints of a good race pace. Even after reporting on the radio that his tyres are worn, his race pace remains up to par.

In the final minute, Sebastian Vettel gets full on the kerbstones causing a piece of body work to come loose from his Ferrari. This has no further consequence and the Mercedes round up the session as the leaders on the board, followed by the surprisingly strong Williams’ and both Red Bull Racing-cars ahead of the Ferrari’s.

Brazilian Grand Prix - Autódromo José Carlos Pace - Friday 11 November

FREE PRACTICE 2 RESULTS

01 44 Lewis Hamilton      Mercedes                    1:12.271          41
02  6 Nico Rosberg        Mercedes                    1:12.301 +0.030s  40
03 77 Valtteri Bottas     Williams Mercedes           1:12.761 +0.490s  47
04 19 Felipe Massa        Williams Mercedes           1:12.789 +0.518s  43
05  3 Daniel Ricciardo    Red Bull Racing TAG Heuer   1:12.828 +0.557s  43
06 33 Max Verstappen      Red Bull Racing TAG Heuer   1:12.928 +0.657s  45
07  5 Sebastian Vettel    Ferrari                     1:13.002 +0.731s  45
08  7 Kimi Räikkönen      Ferrari                     1:13.047 +0.776s  24
09 27 Nico Hulkenberg     Force India Mercedes        1:13.299 +1.028s  42
10 22 Jenson Button       McLaren Honda               1:13.440 +1.169s  19
11 14 Fernando Alonso     McLaren Honda               1:13.572 +1.301s  18
12 26 Daniil Kvyat        Toro Rosso Ferrari          1:13.689 +1.418s  46
13 55 Carlos Sainz        Toro Rosso Ferrari          1:13.801 +1.530s  47
14 11 Sergio Perez        Force India Mercedes        1:13.918 +1.647s  38
15  8 Romain Grosjean     Haas Ferrari                1:14.074 +1.803s  35
16 20 Kevin Magnussen     Renault                     1:14.109 +1.838s  47
17 12 Felipe Nasr         Sauber Ferrari              1:14.309 +2.038s  40
18 31 Esteban Ocon        MRT Mercedes                1:14.317 +2.046s  46
19 30 Jolyon Palmer       Renault                     1:14.436 +2.165s  43
20 21 Esteban Gutierrez   Haas Ferrari                1:14.558 +2.287s  42
21  9 Marcus Ericsson     Sauber Ferrari              1:14.695 +2.424s  21
22 94 Pascal Wehrlein     MRT Mercedes                1:14.958 +2.687s  22