Max finishes with 187 laps: “Satisfied with the reliability and pace”
Published on 08 March 2018 by Mike Motilall
Max Verstappen has finished his final day of testing with a satisfied feeling. After a productive morning session, the young Dutchman already had 77 laps to his name. After lunch, 110 more laps were added to that amount, bringing his total to an impressive 187 laps driven. His team mate, Daniel Ricciardo, put 165 laps on the board already on Wednesday, proving that the reliability of Aston Martin Red Bull Racing’s RB14 seems to be okay.
“We wanted to do as many laps as possible today to see how well the race pace was. To what I feel, the pace is okay. We can be happy with that”, Max tells Verstappen.nl and others present. “The most important thing today was to do our schedule as was planned, drive many laps and improve the car. And that is what we just did today.” The softest tyres that Max did a run on were the ultrasofts. “But that was not in qualifying trim”, Max adds.
On the question if he is ready for the first race in Australia, Max says: “Regarding the reliability, I am satisfied with that. We didn’t have any problems with the car, which is also very important. I am also happy with the race pace, so we have a good starting point.” The 20-year-old driver is not one for making predictions. “We are trying to get closer to Ferrari and Mercedes. If we are three or four tenths shy of them during qualifying, we can take still take the fight to them during the race. That is what we are aiming for. But we need to wait and see, because Melbourne is a very different track all together.”
Max continues on, in the afternoon, on the medium compound tyres and focusses on long runs, simulating race conditions. After twenty laps, a pit stop follows, Verstappen then keeps lapping the track. Meanwhile, Sebastian Vettel is also busy with a similar stint. The lap times of the Ferrari and the Red Bull Racing-car are quite comparable. Another pit stop follows and once again Max heads back out on the asphalt of the track in Barcelona. At a quarter to four, the race simulation is over and Max has a total of 138 laps on the board.
After a few adjustments on the RB14, Max is sent back out on track again, still on the mediums. A brief red flag situation is triggered due to Marcus Ericsson parking his car in Turn four in the gravel trap. When the track is cleared, Max does a run on the ultra-soft compound tyres. Having a lot of fuel on board, he doesn’t better his top lap time which was set during the morning session. Not even when Verstappen, with still half an hour remaining, heads out on the super softs. With fifteen minutes remaining on the clock, Red Bull Racing starts practicing a series of pit stops. The fastest one is in less than two second. Even when a five-second time penalty is simulated, the whole procedure still runs like a Swiss clock.
On Friday, Daniel Ricciardo, will have the ‘honour’ of driving the RB14 on the final day of testing.
Pre-Season Test 2 - Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya - Thursday 8 March 2018
Driver Team Time Difference Laps 1 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1:17.182 188 2 Kevin Magnussen Haas 1:18.360 +1.178 153 3 Pierre Gasly Toro Rosso 1:18.363 +1.181 169 4 Nico Hülkenberg Renault 1:18.675 +1.493 79 5 Carlos Sainz Renault 1:18.725 +1.543 69 6 Stoffel Vandoorne McLaren 1:18.855 +1.673 151 7 Marcus Ericsson Sauber 1:19.244 +2.062 148 8 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:19.296 +2.114 84 9 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 1:19.532 +2.350 97 10 Robert Kubica Williams 1:19.629 +2.447 73 11 Sergio Perez Force India 1:19.634 +2.452 159 12 Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing 1:19.842 +2.660 187 13 Lance Stroll Williams 1:20.262 +3.080 67
