Verstappen second in qualifying, but starting from P14: "Everything worked fine"
Published on 02 September 2017 by Mike Motilall
Max Verstappen managed to qualify in second after a three-and-a-half hour lasting qualifying session for the Italian Grand Prix. In rainy conditions, the Dutchman proved his skills in dealing with the tricky situations on the Monza circuit. However, this doesn’t mean that he will be starting from the front row. Due to the grid penalties handed out, Max will be starting from fourteenth. Lewis Hamilton took home pole position as Ricciardo came in third. The Ozzie will also be dropped down the ranks, promoting Lance Stroll to take place behind Lewis Hamilton on the first row. Esteban Ocon and Valtteri Bottas will start respectively from third and fourth tomorrow.
“It was a pretty good qualifying, everything worked fine”, says Max. “During Q3, I wasn’t that happy with the car like in Q1 and Q2: I was sliding more and mainly in the last sector I couldn’t find any grip. My last lap was good though.” Max continues: “I heard on the team radio that I was on pole and my engineer gave me my sectortimes. But I told him to stop and tell me what Lewis was doing. He was the one to beat.” The Dutchman eventually just failed to do so.”To be down one second, with our package is a very good result. It was fun driving in the rain. I am also happy that we qualified today and not tomorrow on a dry track, otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to qualify in second.”
The changing weather conditions during qualifying were a challenge for the drivers to make a right tyre choice. Max explains: “The whole year round, compared to previous years, has been difficult to get the intermediates working. Last year those tyres felt comfortable, they were pretty soft. Now they feel hard and they lock up very fast. We are not getting enough heat in them, because you are sliding everywhere. That makes it tricky.”
“I thought it was dry enough for the intermediates, but still the full wets were faster, because they are a bit softer. You can get them up to temperature better and they perform better under braking as well. In Q1 and Q2 it was very difficult on the indermediates, but during Q2 it was a bit better because the track was drying up. When it started to rain in Q3 quite a bit again, we immediately went for the full wets, which was eventually the right choice.”
Looking ahead at the race, Max says: “We’ll see what happens tomorrow. We don’t have a great starting position, but regarding race pace, we are most certainly able to finish in the points. It’s only a pity that in front of me a Williams and Force India are so far up. This will enable them to gain a lot of time in the first laps. But we are going to do our best!”
At the start of the first part of qualifying, the conditions are, just like in the third free practice, far from ideal. With the full wets strapped on, the drivers, including Max, head out on track. Hamilton opens with a 1:40.128. The moment Max gets on to do a flying lap, Romain Grosjean spins getting on to turn one. The Frenchman loses control of his Haas due to the vast amount of water on the straight and ends up in the barriers. This brings out the first red flag of the afternoon and halts the session for over half an hour.
By now the safety car is on track to inspect the wet asphalt. After a few laps, Bernd returns and it is announced that the start of the session will be postponed for another fifteen minutes. However, this moment would be further postponed with every following inspection. According to Max Verstappen, the session could have been resumed quite quickly: “We should have gone back out again fifteen minutes after the red flag. That would have been a perfect situation. Now you’re only waiting and more and more rain keeps falling on the track.” The conditions were pretty reasonable at the start of the session: “It was reasonable. It was slippery only on the straight because of the new surface. The water isn’t drained from the track as fast as it should be. The first and second corner were not ideal as well, but the rest was perfect.”
With over two hours after the start of qualifying, it is finally announced that the session will be restarted at 16:40 hrs. The track is by now dry enough to be driven on. When the lights turn green, Max Verstappen is the first to get back out on track. After a few laps, the Dutchman does a 1:37.344, with which he slots in behind the Mercedes drivers and Ferrari running Sebastian Vettel in P4. After a few laps, the amount of water on the circuit is dropping and everyone switches the full wets for the intermediates. But this proves to be not the faster tyre seeing there is still some rain pouring down. Magnussen, Palmer, Ericsson, Wehrlein and Grosjean fail to make the cut and finish in the first part of qualifying.
At the start of Q2, it is once again Max Verstappen who is the first to get out on track. About half the drivers, including the Dutchman, are on the full wets. The other half opt for the intermediates. The difference between both compounds are initially not so big. Max reports to his team that he is unable to get some heat in his tyres. Getting to the end of the session, everyone is on the inters and times keep tumbling down. Hamilton notes a 1:34.660, putting him over seven tenths up on his team mate. Verstappen betters his time and does a 1:36.113, which earns him the third spot, ahead of Sebastian Vettel’s Ferrari. Vandoorne is ninth at the very last moment, with which he demotes Sergio Perez out of the top ten. It’s curtain time for the Mexican, Hülkenberg, Alonso, Kvyat and Sainz.
The weather conditions remain unpredictable in Monza and at the start of the third part of qualifying, it starts raining again. Mercedes goes for the intermediates, but both drivers switch to full wets after just one lap. Max puts a 1:37.782 on the clocks which earns him the first spot. Hamilton snatches that spot moments later as Ricciardo slots in in P2. Max is third at that moment.
It keeps raining and the end of the session proves to be a true spectacle with all kinds of surprises. Verstappen improves his time once more and retakes the lead. The Dutchman seems to retain that position, until Hamilton, with a great lap, blows Max’ lap time out of the water with over a second. Ricciardo demonstrates how well the Red Bull is in the wet and finishes third. Due to grid penalties for Verstappen and Ricciardo, Lance Stroll will start the Italian Grand Prix from the front row. Ocon and Bottas slot in on the second row. Ferrari disappoints their home crowd by coming in seventh (Räikkönen) and eighth (Vettel).
Italian Grand Prix - Autodromo Nazionale Monza - Saturday 2 September
RESULTS QUALIFYING 01 44 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:36.009 1:34.660 1:35.554 29 02 33 Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing TAG Heuer 1:37.344 1:36.113 1:36.702 29 03 3 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing TAG Heuer 1:38.304 1:37.313 1:36.841 26 04 18 Lance Stroll Williams Mercedes 1:37.653 1:37.002 1:37.032 27 05 31 Esteban Ocon Force India Mercedes 1:38.775 1:37.580 1:37.719 29 06 77 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 1:35.716 1:35.396 1:37.833 29 07 7 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 1:38.235 1:37.031 1:37.987 30 08 5 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1:37.198 1:36.223 1:38.064 28 09 19 Felipe Massa Williams Mercedes 1:38.338 1:37.456 1:38.251 27 10 2 Stoffel Vandoorne McLaren Honda 1:38.767 1:37.471 1:39.157 25 11 11 Sergio Perez Force India Mercedes 1:38.511 1:37.582 19 12 27 Nico Hulkenberg Renault 1:39.242 1:38.059 20 13 14 Fernando Alonso McLaren Honda 1:39.134 1:38.202 11 14 26 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 1:39.183 1:38.245 21 15 55 Carlos Sainz Toro Rosso 1:39.788 1:38.526 21 16 20 Kevin Magnussen Haas Ferrari 1:40.489 12 17 30 Jolyon Palmer Renault 1:40.646 10 18 9 Marcus Ericsson Sauber Ferrari 1:41.732 11 19 94 Pascal Wehrlein Sauber Ferrari 1:41.875 9 NC 8 Romain Grosjean Haas Ferrari 1:43.355 3
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