Hockenheim race 1: lights-to-flag win for Max

Published on 18 October 2014 by Stefan Meens

Max Verstappen has clinched his tenth victory of the year in the FIA F3 European Championship after a dominant display at the Hockenheimring. In the first race of the weekend, the Scuderia Toro Rosso signing led from start to finish. With the win, the Van Amersfoort Racing driver takes tvital points in the battle for second place in the championship. His nearest rival for the runner-up position, Tom Blomqvist, finished third behind Max and Lucas Auer.

“It's a good win after a good start”, explains Max. “We've changed the set-up quite a bit after a difficult second qualifying on Friday so it was interesting if our changes would work. In the end, the Van Amersfoort boys, together with the Spiess engineers, did a great job and we had a great race car.” 

Starting from pole position, Verstappen junior has a blistering start and leads the race with Auer, Blomqvist and Antonio Giovinazzi trailing. The Austrian is hanging on in the first three laps but a couple of fastest laps by the Dutchman create a comfortable lead.

“The first couple of laps were pretty tough, but after that I was able to pick up the pace and establish a lead, especially after Auer locked up at the Spitzkehre hairpin. After that, I consolidated my lead. I tried to save my tyres which meant I was able to drive faster than Auer in the last part of the race.”
Max' strategy works and in the closing stages of the race, he is able to extend the gap to Auer. In the end, he 17-year-old takes the chequered flag with a 3.7 second advantage.

Despite a dominant display in the first race of the last round of the Euro F3 campaign, Max remains realistic. “In the second race I start from P9. Hopefully I’m able to have another good start and stay with the boys at the front. It won't be easy as it's a difficult track to stay close to the driver in front of you. It's probably a case of waiting for others to have tyre issues.”

Via Twitter and Facebook we will keep you updated throughout the weekend, followed by a full report on Verstappen.nl at the end of the day’s action. 

The full schedule for the Imola Euro F3 round can be found here.
Furthermore, you can follow Max via the official live timing and the livestream (races only).

FIA Formula 3 European Championship Round 11 – Hockenheim - Day 2, Saturday 16 October:
Results race 1