Max fifth after first day in Monza

Published on 31 August 2018 by Mike Motilall

Max Verstappen finished the first day in fifth in Italy. At the second free practice on the high paced Autodromo Nazionale di Monza Sebastian Vettel was the quickest in his Ferrari. Team mate Kimi Raikkonen was second fastest, ahead of Lewis Hamilton who came in third. Marcus Ericsson was able to walk away unscathed from a severe crash after the DRS from his Sauber remained open.   

“A decent Friday”, says Max after the session. “Luckily we had a dry second practice, so we were able to try out a couple of things. We are still too slow for qualifying, but the long runs are looking more positive. Those were ok. We are pretty competitive with those.”

After a wet first free practice, the track is almost completely dry at the start of the second one. There is still a chance of 60% rain during this session. When the lights turn green at the end of the pit lane, Charles Leclerc is the first driver to head out on track. Not much later Marcus Ericsson follows suit.

The same Ericssion triggers a red flag a few minutes later. The Swede crashes severely at the first chicane. As he brakes, his Sauber pulls to the left and collides with the barriers, the impact is so severe that it sends the car spinning in the air before landing a few hundred meters on the grass. “No idea what happened, but I am ok”, Ericsson reports on the radio. Video images show, some time later, that his DRS was still open the moment he slammed on the brakes.

After twenty minutes, it is announced that Ericsson is ok and that the session will be resumed in two minutes’ time. Fernando Alonso is the first one out and a couple of minutes later, everyone, except Sergio Perez, Lance Stroll and Ericsson, is outside. We quickly see Lewis Hamilton in P1 followed by Daniel Ricciardo. Max goes purple in the first sector, but doesn’t quite make in the second one and then lifts. A next attempt puts him in fifth.

In an effort to make up for lost time, we see a great many cars on track after the red flag. The Ferrari’s are leading the pack ahead of the Mercedes after well over half an hour. Moments later, Max manages to put himself between the Mercedes in fourth. It is remarkable how small the Red Bull rear wing is compared to e.g. Ferrari and Mercedes. Charles Leclerc gets a new rear wing as well because it would appear that he is also suffering from DRS issues.

After a brief period with nobody on track, Sebastian Vettel is out on a new set of the super-softs. It appears that they intend on doing the long runs. As he runs wide in Parabolica, he fails to better his time. Despite that he remains first. Hamilton, Ricciardo and Max are also out on track on a new set of the super-soft compound. Hamilton manages to move up a spot and is now second, but neither he has done a flawless lap either. The Britt runs wide in Lesmo two. Ricciardo progresses at Max’ expense to P5. Max is hampered by a Mercedes during his first flying lap and doesn’t have any possibilities to better his time. Not much later, he succeeds however and he snatches back P5.

With half an hour left on the clock, Vettel hits the tyre wall at the outside of Parabolica. In an effort to better his time, the German spins off track and lightly brushes the barrier. He is able to make it out the gravel trap on his own and returns back to the pits for a checkup.

With fifteen minutes remaining on the clock, everyone except Vettel and Ericsson are out on track. We see the drivers mainly do long runs. In the closing stages of the session, we don’t see any bettering of times from the top teams. This leaves Ferrari leading the pack in Monza after the first day.

Italian GP contest: win a signed orange Max Verstappen driver cap!

Results second free practice Italy: