Verstappen finishes pre-season testing in second: “Very positive”
Published on 02 March 2017 by Mike Motilall
Max Verstappen has had a very productive day on the circuit of Barcelona. The Dutchman lapped the track some 43 times during the morning session on a track that was getting drier and drier. In the afternoon session, he added 42 more laps to the tally. A second place on the leaderboard brought out Max' happy face and also from his team. Kimi Raikkonen managed to top the leaderboard today. The Fin was almost a second faster than Verstappen. The top five was rounded up by Palmer, Grosjean and Giovinazzi.
At the end of the day, Verstappen had the following to say regarding the wet conditions: “It was slippery on track. For sure it is always good to be able to test on a wet circuit so you can get a feel for the full wets. The conditions are of course not ideal. The sun is shining while the track is wet. We now have a rough idea regarding the full wets. Compared to last year, you need to drive the car little bit different on the wet asphalt, but the car performed well.”
In general, Max is satisfied with the first week of pre-season testing: “For us this week was very positive, even though it is hard to say where we stand. We haven’t really pushed yet. For us it was important to get some mileage and to see if all the parts were working properly. I think everything was working fine. Even I needed to get a grip on the new car and the team needed to learn to deal with this new type of car as well.”
Answering the question how much the RB13 will be modified till Melbourne the Dutchman replied: “Hopefully the car will be modified in the right direction. We need to wait and see. I am sure that it will be modified somewhat, but other teams are also doing the same. Mercedes will have an advantage on us regarding power, certainly at the start of the season, but I think that we are catching up.”
Just like during the morning session, the track is artificially watered prior to the afternoon session. A very strange site, because the sun is out and about and the temperature is almost twenty degrees Centigrade. On the wet circuit, it is mainly Bottas who is going round the track. The Mercedes team has only done six laps in the morning session and has to make up for lost time. The track is drying up even faster than during the early session and after a little over an hour, Bottas decides to strap on regular tyres.
Verstappen is not to be found on track during the first hour-and-a-half of the session. His team discovered an issue with the exhaust on the RB13 after the early session and are busy fixing the problem. After the issue has been fixed, the Dutchman heads back out on track. He immediately has a good tempo. With a 1:22.949, on the softs, he improves his time set during the morning session and moves up to P3.
With still an hour-and-a-half remaining on the clock, the Dutchman clocks a 1:21.839 on th soft compound tyre. Good enough to put him in P1. Moments later he tops this with a 1:21.769. Raikkonen however, puts the pedal to the metal and tops the leaderboard with a 1:20.872.
Toro Rosso has a very disappointing day. Due to an engine change, the STR12 doesn’t get back out on track after a single installation lap. Williams already announced not to get back out on track due to Lance Stroll’s crash yesterday.
In conclusion one can say that Red Bull hasn’t showed itself at the front of the field yet this week. There were also some reliability issues that the team had to deal with, mainly on the days that Ricciardo was at the helm of the RB13. Mercedes and Ferrari were always at the front of the field during this first session of pre-season testing, both regarding speed as well as the number of laps driven.
From March seven through ten, the second session of pre-season testing will take place on Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
Pre-Season Test 1 - Circuit de Barcelona-Cataluyna - Thursday 2 March 2017
1 K. Räikkönen Ferrari 1:20.872 S 93 2 M. Verstappen Red Bull 1:21.769 S 85 3 J. Palmer Renault 1:21.778 S 39 4 R. Grosjean Haas 1:22.309 SS 118 5 A. Giovinazzi Sauber 1.22.401 US 84 6 S. Pérez Force India 1:22.534 SS 82 7 S. Vandoorne McLaren 1:22.576 US 67 8 V. Bottas Mercedes 1:23.443 S 68 9 N. Hülkenberg Renault 1:24.974 S 51 10 D. Kvyat Toro Rosso 1
