Verstappen after his P14 in third free practice: “Work to de done”

Published on 28 November 2015 by Mike Motilall

On the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi, Max Verstappen drove the fourteenth fastest time in the third free practice. In a session where he had some issues with the balance of the car, his fastest time was a 1:43.826, a little over two seconds slower than Nico Rosberg; who clocked the fastest time during the session in his Mercedes. Lewis Hamilton came in second. Where we saw a great gap between the Mercedes and the rest of the field earlier on in this season, Sebastian Vettel was now able to follow the Brit around in less than five hundredths of a second.

“I was not happy with the balance”, says Verstappen immediately after the training to Verstappen.nl. “We were suffering from oversteer in a few corners, so we need to work on a setup to prevent this before qualifying. That's why I am having a meeting immediately with my engineers to discuss matters, because there is work to be done.” When asked about his expectations for qualifying, Max answers: “I am confident that we are able get our ourselves sorted and that we can have a good flow in all sectors. It will be an interesting qualifying, because the midfield is quite close to each other. It will be exiciting!”

When the lights turn green, it takes a while before both Toro Rosso’s are seen on track. Only after about ten minutes, Max heads out, just after his team mate, on track. Everyone is on the softs. For Max it isn’t an installation lap, he immediately gets down to business and opens with a 1:44.704, only to improve this to a 1:44.614 three laps later. We witness how the youngster is hard and spectacularly bouncing on the kerbs. But he is not really happy about the setup of the car, as he is heard talking to his race-engineer Xevi Pujolar on the radio: “I am having problems with the grip at the rear of the car. When I lift, the car slides away and I cannot position myself well enough for the corners.”

By now, we are around some twenty minutes in the session, when we see both Mercedes and Red Bulls on track. Max improves himself to 1:44.450, but then heads back in. But things are not all too bad as with Romain Grosjean; the Frenchman classifies his car as “undriveable” on the radio. Hamilton clocks the fastest time, but feels his team mate and Kimi Raikkonen’s Ferrari breathing down his neck. In search of a faster time, he slips off track, but the Brit is able to continue on without any hick ups. On the softs, it is by no means a one-two for Mercedes: Raikkonen has managed to squeeze himself in between. Max is, by now, on the track again but fails to improve himself. “This has no point, I am wasting my time”, the Dutchman relays on the radio, after which he quickly reports back to his team.

With around fifteen minutes left, the super softs are being taken out of the tyre warmers. Hamilton and Rosberg are the firsts to make the change. The latter is 1.6 seconds faster in his first lap on the super soft compound tyre, in his second lap he takes even another four tenths off; making him absolutely the quickest on track. Max takes off eight tenths off of his time and does a 1:43.826 in his first lap on the super softs. Again he does not improve his time and finishes the session in fourteenth. His team mate, Carlos Sainz, is four tenths quicker and finishes in tenth.

Lotus, with whom Scuderia Toro Rosso is fighting for the sixth place in the constructor’s standings, and with whom Max is fighting for tenth in the driver’s standings, is close to their immediate competitor from Faenza: Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado both respectively finish in fifteenth and twelfth. Daniil Kvyat, due to an electrical issue, hardly got on track and failed to put a time on the board.

Abu Dhabi Grand Prix – Yas Marina Circuit – Saturday 28 November 2015

 RESULTS FREE PRACTICE 3
 P No Driver             Team          Time     Gap   Laps 
 1  6 Nico Rosberg       Mercedes      1:41.856         20 
 2 44 Lewis Hamilton     Mercedes      1:42.137 +0.281s 20 
 3  5 Sebastian Vettel   Ferrari       1:42.185 +0.329s 20 
 4 11 Sergio Perez       Force India   1:42.448 +0.592s 18 
 5  7 Kimi Räikkönen     Ferrari       1:42.627 +0.771s 18 
 6  3 Daniel Ricciardo   Red Bull      1:42.726 +0.870s 15 
 7 27 Nico Hulkenberg    Force India   1:42.859 +1.003s 18 
 8 19 Felipe Massa       Williams      1:43.173 +1.317s 24 
 9 77 Valtteri Bottas    Williams      1:43.239 +1.383s 19 
10 55 Carlos Sainz       Toro Rosso    1:43.429 +1.573s 22 
11 22 Jenson Button      McLaren       1:43.508 +1.652s 15 
12 13 Pastor Maldonado   Lotus         1:43.680 +1.824s 18 
13 12 Felipe Nasr        Sauber        1:43.718 +1.862s 24 
14 33 Max Verstappen     Toro Rosso    1:43.826 +1.970s 19 
15  8 Romain Grosjean    Lotus         1:43.928 +2.072s 21 
16 14 Fernando Alonso    McLaren       1:44.014 +2.158s 13 
17  9 Marcus Ericsson    Sauber        1:44.325 +2.469s 21 
18 28 Will Stevens       Marussia      1:47.283 +5.427s 16 
19 98 Roberto Merhi      Marussia      1:47.520 +5.664s 17 
20 26 Daniil Kvyat       Red Bull                       2 

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