Verstappen 4th on the first day in RB14: "First impression very positive"

Published on 27 February 2018 by Raymond Snip

Max Verstappen finished his first day in the Red Bull Racing RB14 in fourth place with 67 laps behind his name. The Dutchman had a fairly productive afternoon, even though the conditions, just like in the morning, were not ideal. At the end of the afternoon there even was some light snowfall on the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. With a time of 1:20.326 Verstappen was six tenths of a second slower than the fastest driver, Sebastian Vettel, who managed to put down a 1:19.673. Valtteri Bottas and Stoffel Vandoorne finished the day in P2 and P3.

In front of the gathered press, including Verstappen.nl, Max talks about his first impressions of the RB14: "It went pretty well. Of course, it is still early and you always want to fine-tune the balance, but the first impression is very positive, more so than last year. It was very cold today, so it was very difficult to get the tires working. After I left the pits, I simply had to go full out to keep the temperature in the tires, improving time one lap at a time."

"This morning we had a fuel leak, after which we checked the whole car. The weather wasn’t great and since the track was still damp at that moment, we did not really lose any track time. After that we could finish our program. It was a positive day, so I am pretty satisfied.”

To the question of whether Max has a winning car, the Dutchman says: "I don’t know if the car is good for victories, I only drove this car once and I think nobody has shown anything yet. However, I do know when a car is performing well or not and this car is performing well. We have no problems and that is a big difference with last year."

Finally, Max discusses the program for the coming days: "Regarding the weather, tomorrow doesn’t look very positive. Thursday, I get back in the car and then we’ll make as many runs as possible."

After a cold morning, when the temperatures were just above freezing, it’s not much warmer in the afternoon. The only driver change takes place at Williams, where Robert Kubica takes over the wheel from Sergey Sirotkin in the afternoon. After a brief red flag period, caused by a spin of Sauber debutant Charles Leclerc, there is more action on the track after two o’clock. When the lights go green, Max Verstappen immediately hits the track to make up for his unproductive morning.

Verstappen sets a 1:21.014 on the medium compound, with which he settles on P4 on the time chart. Vettel sets the fastest time at that moment, almost a second faster than the Dutchman, after which he gets of track through the gravel. Without damage, the German returns to the pits, but a code red is activated to remove the gravel from the circuit.

Fifteen minutes after the track is released, Max appears on track. This time for a few short runs. With more than two hours to go, Max starts his first long run. In the 25-lap stint, Max improves his time to a 1:20.326 with which he stays on P4, only one thousandth of a second behind Vandoorne on P3. The McLaren MCL33 seems to have speed, but with only 37 laps the team from Woking does not experience a productive day. Only Kevin Magnussen sees the circuit less often. The Haas driver only completes 32 laps and is the slowest on track.

At the end of the afternoon snow is coming down, which causes Verstappen to finish his last runs on intermediates. The Red Bull Racing driver ends the day with a total of 67 laps. Ferrari and Mercedes are leading the pack today. Vettel sets the fastest time of the day with a 1:19.673 on the soft tires, followed by Valtteri Bottas with three tenths. With 98 laps for Vettel and 94 laps for Bottas, the two men also make the most kilometers of the day.

   Driver         	Team	 	Time 	        Difference	Laps
1  Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari		1:19.673  	        	98
2  Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	1:19.976        +0.303  	94
3  Stoffel Vandoorne	McLaren		1:20.325	+0.652  	37
4  Max Verstappen 	Red Bull	1:20.326	+0.653  	67
5  Carlos Sainz   	Renault		1:21.212	+1.539   	65
6  Pierre Gasly   	Toro Rosso	1:21.318	+1.645  	82
7  Robert Kubica   	Williams	1:21.495	+1.822  	48
8  Sergey Sirotkin	Williams	1:21.822	+2.149  	52
9  Esteban Ocon   	Force India	1:21.841	+2.168  	79
10 Charles Leclerc	Sauber		1:22.721	+3.048  	81
11 Kevin Magnussen	Haas		1:22.727	+3.054  	36