Max P4 in final free practice in China

Published on 14 April 2018 by Raymond Snip

Max Verstappen finished the closing free practice in Shanghai in P4. During a problematic session for Aston Martin Red Bull Racing, Sebastian Vettel in his Ferrari set the fastest time. Teammate Kimi Raikkonen finished the session in second place, followed by Valtteri Bottas in his Mercedes in third.

When at 11:00 AM local time the lights go green, it is cloudy and with an air temperature of 13°C really cool. There is a 40% chance of rain during this session. Due to rain showers during the night, there are still some damp spots on the tarmac. Six minutes into the session Kimi Raikkonen is the first driver to set a time. At Aston Martin Red Bull Racing everything is still quiet, Max and Daniel Ricciardo have not stepped into the car yet. It is also quiet on the track, after fifteen minutes only both Renaults, both Toro Rosso's, Raikkonen and Kevin Magnussen have recorded a time.

After twenty minutes Stoffel Vandoorne is told to return to the pits. "We have no telemetry, you have to come in", the Belgian is told via the onboard radio. Ricciardo, Max and Sergei Sirotkin had still not been on track at that time. With 35 minutes to go, we finally see both Red Bulls appear on track. Both Red Bulls have soft tires installed. As soon as Max enters his first flying lap, Hamilton spins. The World Champion goes wide at the exit of turn ten and loses control of his Mercedes on the wet synthetic turf.

In the meantime Ricciardo is suffering a problem. It appears that he blows up his engine on the straight and has to park his smoke and flames spitting car in the grass. After the electrical issues in Bahrain, the Australian again suffers from problems to his car, resulting in a virtual safety car situation. Max is asked to come in because the tires do not create enough heat. At that moment he is P9 with Ricciardo  P7.

With an increasingly gray sky, the question is how long it will remain dry. With 10 minutes left on the clock, Max appears on track again on a new set of ultras. After his first flying lap, the Dutchman climbs to P4 between the two Mercedes.

There are also problems for Max. In the final stages he reports losing power just before the upshift, which brings back memories of the issues he had in Azerbaijan last year.

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Results third free practice China: