Max ends strong maiden season in Abu Dhabi in P16: “Not my day”

Published on 29 November 2015 by Mike Motilall

After having troubled free practices and a qualifying session where he missed out on Q3 by a narrow margin, Max Verstappen finished as the sixteenth fastest in the last race of this season. Nico Rosberg took victory on the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi in front of his Mercedes-team mate Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen’s Ferrari.

“It wasn’t my day”, Max tells Verstappen.nl after the race. “The pace we had was not bad at all, until I locked up my tyres and had to box for some new ones. In fact my whole race was compromised then. I enjoyed my overtakes very much but for the most part of the race I was driving all by myself. The whole season was great, so one bad race is ok. With the performance of the whole team and also for myself, I can be very happy. Despite the engine deficit that we have.”

At the start, with the sun about to set, everyones gets well off their gridspot. In the first corner however, Fernando Alonso rams Pastor Maldonado off of the circuit. For the Lotus-driver this means the end of his run as Alonso is able to continue on.

Max, who is on fresh super soft tyres, has a clean getaway but has an exciting first lap as he battles with Daniel Ricciardo’s Red Bull. He forces Max briefly off track and at the end of the first lap Max is in P10. Moments later he is forced to hand over that spot as Sebastian Vettel comes charging through.

Because of his new tyres, Max is able to continue on for longer than most cars around him. In lap nine, he pits for some fresh new wheels. The same time, Valtteri Bottas is released by his team as Jenson Button is on his way in. The two drivers hit each other and Bottas loses his front wing.

After his pitstop, Max is in P13 on the softs and behind of his team mate Carlos Sainz. At the front, it’s both Mercedes that are in a class of their own. Rosberg breaks away from world champion Hamilton, who in turn has Raikkonen’s Ferrari trailing in a couple of seconds.

Max is quicker than Sainz, so the Spaniard easily lets the Dutchman pass. This puts him in P11. His deficit to Daniil Kvyat at that moment is over four seconds. Moments later, Max flat spots his tyres by locking up while braking too hard. He informs his team that he needs new tyres and heads for the pits. After his stop, he continues on, once again on the soft compound, behind the likes of Marcus Ericsson in P15.

Max appears to have some difficulties in passing Ericsson, but eventually manages this with a very nice overtake maneuver. This kind of puts him in nobody’s land for a while. Sainz stops some laps later and gets up to speed, advancing in the direction of the Dutchman; who politely lets him pass by on the straight. The two Toro Rosso’s are both outside of the top ten and also both outside of the points, in P11 and P12.

It seems that there will be no glory for both rookies, as they are more than ten seconds away from the spot that can earn them a point. Max does, in lap forty, his third and final stop and switches to the super soft tyre. From P15, he now has a monstrous challenge on his hand, to see if he is still able to finish in the points.

The first driver that is taken down is Felipe Nasr. On the same spot, as with Ericsson earlier, Max puts his STR10 in front. Moments later, he is full in the mirrors of Button, who offers some more resistance. In an ultimate effort to keep Max behind of him, he pushes the Toro Rosso off track, but his efforts are in vain. Max breaks away from the McLaren but is given a five-second time penalty by the stewards. He supposedly gained an advantage, while overtaking Button, by leaving the track.

This penalty has no impact on Max as his lead on Button is big enough. During the last lap, it seemed that Max was also ‘under investigation’, apparently for ignoring blue flags. At the front, it’s Rosberg who takes the checkered flag ahead of Hamilton and Raikkonen. After the checkered flag fell, Max was given drive through-penalty. This drops him down the order to P16. Moreover, he gets three penalty points added to his licence, which brings his total to eight points this year. Twelve penalty points, within a period of twelve months will result in exclusion for one race.

Looking back on 2015, we can conclude that Max has had an impressive maiden season. In many a races he absolutely was the headliner. His feeling for the car, his boldness and aggressive driving style; but above all, his spectacular and daring overtakes earned him praise from one and all. Many predict a very bright future for the young Dutchman in the tough world that is called Formula 1.

The season is not quite completely finished, as Max will remain in Abu Dhabi for a few days more. Coming Tuesday, Scuderia Toro Rosso will perform some tyre testing for Pirelli. His team mate, Sainz, will also partake in the testing. Both will do half a day of testing.

Abu Dhabi Grand Prix – Yas Marina Circuit – Sunday 29 November 2015

 RACE RESULTS
 P Driver                 Team          Time
 1 Nico Rosberg       GER Mercedes      1:38:30.175
 2 Lewis Hamilton     GBR Mercedes      +8.271s
 3 Kimi Raikkonen     FIN Ferrari       +19.430s
 4 Sebastian Vettel   GER Ferrari       +43.735s
 5 Sergio Perez       MEX Force India   +63.952s
 6 Daniel Ricciardo   AUS Red Bull      +65.010s
 7 Nico Hulkenberg    GER Force India   +93.618s
 8 Felipe Massa       BRA Williams      +97.751s
 9 Romain Grosjean    FRA Lotus         +98.201s
10 Daniil Kvyat       RUS Red Bull      +102.371s
11 Carlos Sainz       ESP Toro Rosso    +103.525s
12 Jenson Button      GBR McLaren       +1 lap
13 Valtteri Bottas    FIN Williams      +1 lap
14 Marcus Ericsson    SWE Sauber        +1 lap
15 Felipe Nasr        BRA Sauber        +1 lap
16 Max Verstappen     NED Toro Rosso    +1 lap
17 Fernando Alonso    ESP McLaren       +2 laps
18 Will Stevens       GBR Marussia      +2 laps
19 Roberto Merhi      ESP Marussia      +3 laps
NC Pastor Maldonado   VEN Lotus         DNF