Max qualifies in fourth: "Made the most of it"
Published on 11 November 2017 by Stefan Meens
Max Verstappen will start the penultimate race of the season from the second row of the grid. The Dutchman qualified his Red Bull Racing in fourth, a place ahead of team mate Daniel Ricciardo but behind pole sitter Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes) and the Ferraris of Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen.
“The balance wasn't great and we are losing speed in the highspeed sections. We did make the most of it, so I'm happy about that, but if you win two out of the last four races, you hope to be more at the front”
Looking forward to race day, Max is realistic: “We don’t have to pace to attack. Something has to happen at the start if we want to move forward.”
Q1 starts with a surprising crash. Within the opening five minutes, newly crowned World Champion Lewis Hamilton, parked his Mercedes in the barriers. The Briton lost the rear going into turn six, meaning he is out for the rest of qualifying. The other drivers not making the cut are the Saubers of Marcus Ericsson and Pascal Wehrlein, Scuderia Toro Rosso’s Pierre Gasly and Williams’ Lance Stroll.
In the second part of qualifying, the front runners - the two Ferraris, Red Bulls and remaining Mercedes - are comfortably through to Q3. Esteban Ocon (Force India), Brendan Hartley (Scuderia Toro Rosso), Stoffel Vandoorne (McLaren) and the two Haas of Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean fail to make to top ten, meaning their qualifying ends in part two.
In Q3, it is a straight fight between the Ferraris and the Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas. Going into the final run (out of two) Vettel has provisional pole. But in the dying moments of the session, Bottas pips the German by 0.038s to take his third pole of the season and career. Kimi Raikkonen lays claim to P3. The Red Bulls qualify in fourth and fifth, with Max outqualifying Daniel Ricciardo yet again.
01 77 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 1:09.452 1:08.638 1:08.322 22 02 5 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1:09.643 1:08.494 1:08.360 21 03 7 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1:09.405 1:09.116 1:08.538 18 04 33 Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing TAG Heuer 1:09.820 1:09.050 1:08.925 18 05 3 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing TAG Heuer 1:09.828 1:09.533 1:09.330 19 06 11 Sergio Perez Force India Mercedes 1:10.145 1:09.760 1:09.598 21 07 14 Fernando Alonso McLaren Honda 1:10.172 1:09.593 1:09.617 17 08 27 Nico Hulkenberg Renault 1:10.078 1:09.726 1:09.703 21 09 55 Carlos Sainz Renault 1:10.227 1:09.768 1:09.805 17 10 19 Felipe Massa Williams Mercedes 1:09.789 1:09.612 1:09.841 16 11 31 Esteban Ocon Force India Mercedes 1:10.168 1:09.830 17 12 8 Romain Grosjean Haas Ferrari 1:10.148 1:09.879 16 13 2 Stoffel Vandoorne McLaren Honda 1:10.286 1:10.116 15 14 20 Kevin Magnussen Haas Ferrari 1:10.521 1:10.154 18 15 28 Brendon Hartley Toro Rosso 1:10.625 - 15 16 94 Pascal Wehrlein Sauber Ferrari 1:10.678 12 17 10 Pierre Gasly Toro Rosso 1:10.686 10 18 18 Lance Stroll Williams Mercedes 1:10.776 8 19 9 Marcus Ericsson Sauber Ferrari 1:10.875 12 NC 44 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes - 2
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