Verstappen fourth in British Grand Prix: “A positive day”

Published on 16 July 2017 by Mike Motilall

Max Verstappen scored a great fourth place at the British Grand Prix. After all of his misfortune the last races, his RB13 stayed alive and the Dutch Red Bull Racing-driver came in fourth fastest after the chaotic closing stages of the race. Lewis Hamilton took the victory home in his Mercedes, followed by Valtteri Bottas and Kimi Raikkonen who both rounded up the podium.

Max about being the fourth fastest: “It is a positive day. Fortunately we seemed a bit better in the race than during qualifying. We now only need to understand what went wrong during quali and this weekend, because we were not quick enough. I am happy to have reached the finishline and we got the maximum amount of points. I am looking forward to Hungary and the updates that will be coming there.”

Verstappen had a good getting off the line and even seemed to be able to overtake Raikkonen for second: “The start was very good, it has been good the whole year round actually. I wanted to go round the outside with Kimi, but he blocked me. I was then behind of him and lost all grip on the front. So I needed to wait before I could get back on the throttle again, enabling Vettel to come back again. Then I overtook him in turn four from the outside, so that was nice.” The battle between the two of them lasted even longer: “The fight was fine, but we are just too slow. I needed to defend with everything I had. At a certain point he came in on the inside, so I needed to go on the outside. He banged the wheel at full speed, as long as nothing breaks off, it’s all allowed.”

Vettel eventually managed to pass Verstappen by pitting one lap earlier than the Dutchman. The pit stop was not entirely flawless for Max, seeing there were some issues with getting the left rear on: “That was not very good, so that is a bit disappointing”, says Verstappen.

Right before the end, Max was called in for an extra pit stop after witnessing Ferrari running into problems with their tyres: “I saw that Kimi went in and thought that we needed to stay out. Oh well, that is hindsight. I was locking up quite often at the end and seeing we had stopped very early, we didn't want to risk it. The team wanted to play it safe for me so that I would be able to cross the finish line.”

Even before the race actually gets underway, Jolyon Palmer is on the radio to report to his team that there is an hydraulic problem with his car. The team tells him to turn off the car and put it in neutral, the Brit then parks his Renault in the grass. This brings out the yellow flag, triggering an extra formation lap for the drivers. After the pack has regrouped and after the lights go out, Max Verstappen has a good start. The Red Bull Racing-driver immediately shoots pass Vettel for third. The German appears to come back again, but Max is able to fend him off and retain his P3.

Not much later, things take a turn for the worse beteen the Scuderia Toro Rosso drivers. Battling with each other, Daniil Kvyat and Carlos Sainz leave one another no room. Kvyat gets off track and rejoins the field in a very unsafe manner, causing the two to collide with each other. Sainz’ car is crippled and he is forced to drop out. The safety car is then deployed, the first and only time during the race. Kvyat however, doesn’t walk away clean from this, he is slapped with a drive through penalty and two penalty points on his super licence.

When the race is resumed, Hamilton is leading the pack, with Raikkonen, Verstappen and Vettel behind of him. Bottas, having started from ninth, is fifth after ten laps already.

Verstappen is struggling to keep up with Hamilton and Raikkonen's pace, which in turn enables Vettel’s Ferrari to lay on some pressure on the Dutchman. On Hangar Straight, the Ferrari-driver is within one second and tries to overtake Max, with his DRS, on the straight on the inside. Verstappen fights back and stays ahead of the four time world champion.

On lap nineteen, Vettel  pits and tries to get in front of Verstappen by doing the ‘undercut’. The German switches to the super-softs and continues on. One lap later, Max responds by also heading in. Getting the left rear on takes too long and this puts Verstappen in P5, behind of Bottas and Vettel. Bottas does a long stint on the softs and pits on lap 32 for the softest compound available. The Fin stays ahead of Max Verstappen.

Towards the end of the race, Bottas increases the pressure on Vettel. On the softer and fresher compound, the Austrian Grand Prix winner passes the German and secures a podium finish.

When the pecking order has finally been established, two laps before the end, things go South for Kimi Raikkonen when his left front punctures. The Fin is forced to come in for a new set. This is the beginning of the chaotic closing stages of the race. Red Bull acts wisely by pulling in Verstappen and strapping on a new set of tyres on his car. As the gap to the other drivers is big enough, the youngster retains his position and seems to have secured his fifth spot. Not much later, Vettel’s left front also dies on him, this promotes Verstappen one spot up. The Ferrari-driver drops all the way down to the seventh spot.

Daniel Ricciardo comes in fifth fastest, an excellent performance given the fact that he came all the way from nineteenth. Nico Hulkenberg has done Renault also a great favour by finishing sixth.

British Grand Prix - Silverstone - Sunday 16 July

RACE RESULTS

01 44 Lewis Hamilton      Mercedes                   	51 1:21:27.430  25
02 77 Valtteri Bottas     Mercedes                   	51 +14.063s     18
03  7 Kimi Räikkönen      Ferrari                    	51 +36.570s     15
04 33 Max Verstappen      Red Bull Racing TAG Heuer  	51 +52.125s     12
05  3 Daniel Ricciardo    Red Bull Racing TAG Heuer  	51 +65.955s     10
06 27 Nico Hulkenberg     Renault                    	51 +68.109s     8
07  5 Sebastian Vettel    Ferrari                    	51 +93.989s     6
08 31 Esteban Ocon        Force India Mercedes       	50 +1 lap       4
09 11 Sergio Perez        Force India Mercedes       	50 +1 lap       2
10 19 Felipe Massa        Williams Mercedes          	50 +1 lap       1
11  2 Stoffel Vandoorne   McLaren Honda              	50 +1 lap       0
12 20 Kevin Magnussen     Haas Ferrari               	50 +1 lap       0
13  8 Romain Grosjean     Haas Ferrari               	50 +1 lap       0
14  9 Marcus Ericsson     Sauber Ferrari             	50 +1 lap       0
15 26 Daniil Kvyat        Toro Rosso                 	50 +1 lap       0
16 18 Lance Stroll        Williams Mercedes          	50 +1 lap       0
17 94 Pascal Wehrlein     Sauber Ferrari             	50 +1 lap       0
NC 14 Fernando Alonso     McLaren Honda              	32 DNF          0
NC 55 Carlos Sainz        Toro Rosso                 	0  DNF          0
NC 30 Jolyon Palmer       Renault                    	0  DNS          0