Verstappen fifth in Russian GP: “This was the maximum achievable”
Published on 30 April 2017 by Mike Motilall
Max Verstappen finished fifth at the Russian Grand Prix. Having had an excellent start, where he advanced from seventh to fifth, the Dutchman had a lonely race. Despite issues with the water pump, before the start of the race, Verstappen was able to complete the entire race and added ten more points to his tally for the world championship. Mercedes driving Valtteri Bottas, took his first win in the Formula 1. Ferrari-drivers Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen rounded up the podium.
“It was pretty relaxed”, says Max after his lonely race. “I watched the TV screens to see what was happening in front of me. There was a gap of 24 seconds in front of me and one of 26 seconds behind of me, then there is not much you can do. The start was very good. I didn’t have much wheelspin and chose the right line from turn one to two, so it all went fine. After that, it became pretty much a dull race and there was not much action. During the race, I did have a lot of communication with the team. The engine wasn’t sounding as it should, so at the end we needed to tone it down considerably. But we got to the finish line and scored some important points.”
According to Max, a fifth place finish was the best they could achieve: “You’re a dreamer if you think anything else than fifth was possible. This is at this moment the maximum we can achieve if no one in front of us makes a mistake.” Verstappen can hardly wait for the updates on the RB13 in Barcelona: “I am looking forward to that. It is a great track to drive on and I am curious to see how things will work out. Hopefully we can close the gap and will be able to fight for the lead. We are of course making progress with the car, but so are others. We need to keep working hard, because the gap is still very big.”
Before the start of the race, Max is having problems with his RB13. The Dutchman explains on the grid: “This morning we changed the engine, it was not working anymore and the water pump has been replaced for the second time today. It was still leaking, but now they sealed it with kit.”
Fernando Alonso was in a world of trouble today. During the formation lap, the Spaniard was forced park his McLaren alongside the track and was not even able to start the race. This resulted in the race start being aborted for another formation lap. After that, the field was let loose. Max Verstappen has a good start off the line from seventh and is in fifth at turn two. Behind him, Romain Grosjean and Jolyon Palmer come into contact with each other. With severe damages to their cars, both are forced to leave the battlefield. Due to their contact, they bring out the safety car. At the front, it is Bottas who has snatched the lead followed by Ferrari-driving Vettel and Raikkonen.
On lap four, the safety car heads back in and the race pace is picked up again. Shortly afterwards, Daniel Ricciardo runs into problems with his right rear brake. The Ossie tells his team on the radio that his brake is on fire and is told to bring his car to the pits. Verstappen is told to shift his brake balance to the front for as much as he can take, in order to avoid him running into the same problems as Ricciardo. In the following laps, Max is not able to keep up with the pace of the four front runners, but is building a decent gap towards Felipe Massa, running behind of him. The rest of field also starts spreading out. Unfortunately, this means that there is no real fight to be seen on track.
On lap 21, Max tells his team on the radio that his left front tyre is starting to blister. Despite that, Verstappen maintains a decent tempo. Many drivers behind him, opt to change their tyres. On lap 27, leader of the pack, Valtteri Bottas, comes in for his pit stop. The Fin switches to the super-softs and drops back to fourth. Verstappen pits on lap 30. After a quick pit stop, done in 2.3 seconds, Max re-emerges on track in fifth, right in front of Nico Hulkenberg. The youngster is able to get to the finish line on the super-soft compound tyre.
Regarding the front runners, Vettel is the only one to go on much longer until his first pit stop. He eventually pits on lap 35 and hands back the lead to Bottas. Vettel re-emerges on track in second, ahead of team mate Raikkonen. On his fresher tyres, Vettel manages to get within one second of Bottas. The German is however unable to pose a threat, resulting in Bottas being able to celebrate his first ever Formula 1-win. Raikkonen scores his first podium finish this season with his P3. Hamilton is nowhere to be seen as he finished in fourth, trailing considerably. Max takes the fifth spot and adds ten points to his score. Force India has an excellent race with Sergio Perez in sixth and Esteban Ocon in P7.
Russian Grand Prix - Sochi Autodrome - Sunday 30 April
RACE RESULTS 01 77 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 52 1:28:08.743 02 5 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 52 +0.617s 03 7 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 52 +11.000s 04 44 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 52 +36.320s 05 33 Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing TAG Heuer 52 +60.416s 06 11 Sergio Perez Force India Mercedes 52 +86.788s 07 31 Esteban Ocon Force India Mercedes 52 +95.004s 08 27 Nico Hulkenberg Renault 52 +96.188s 09 19 Felipe Massa Williams Mercedes 51 +1 lap 10 55 Carlos Sainz Toro Rosso 51 +1 lap 11 18 Lance Stroll Williams Mercedes 51 +1 lap 12 26 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 51 +1 lap 13 20 Kevin Magnussen Haas Ferrari 51 +1 lap 14 2 Stoffel Vandoorne McLaren Honda 51 +1 lap 15 9 Marcus Ericsson Sauber Ferrari 51 +1 lap 16 94 Pascal Wehrlein Sauber Ferrari 50 +2 laps NC 3 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing TAG Heuer 5 DNF NC 30 Jolyon Palmer Renault 0 DNF NC 8 Romain Grosjean Haas Ferrari 0 DNF NC 14 Fernando Alonso McLaren Honda 0 DNS
