Max puts 130 laps on the board: “Car is definitely faster than last year”

Published on 06 March 2018 by Mike Motilall

With no less than 130 laps to his name, Max Verstappen has almost driven two Grand Prix-distances during the first day on the second four day pre-season testing in Barcelona. The Aston Martin Red Bull Racing-driver clocked a 1:20.649, the third fastest time of the day, just two tenths shy of Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari) and five hundredths behind of Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes).

“It went well today”, Max tells Verstappen.nl and others also present. “We managed to do a lot of laps, that was very important. This makes us get the mileage up on the car, also understand the car and see how it was behaving. The feeling about the car is all good, but you still don’t know what others are doing, so we have to wait till Melbourne to see how good we are.”

Halfway during the afternoon the RB14 comes to a standstill. “We had a small battery problem”, Max explains. “It took some time to change it but afterwards it was all good again.” In which area has the most progress been made with the car? “That is difficult to say because of the new tarmac and the new tyres. It changes the whole way of driving and also affects the whole car. It feels alright. The car is definitely faster than last year. So that’s positive.”

While the sun keeps shining bright, the wind has picked up its pace on this Tuesday afternoon. Lewis Hamilton, who has taken over the Mercedes-steering wheel from Bottas, is the first to get out on the asphalt. Because Red Bull Racing is giving Max’ car a thorough examination, it takes forty five minutes before the Dutchman heads out on track.

Verstappen resumes the testing on the medium compound tyres. The team has also put flow-viz on the car. This is a highly contrasting paint which enables the airflow, in this case of the front wing, to be examined by the engineers. After passing the 100 lap mark, Max does another fourteen. After that, he comes to a standstill at the end of the straight. He parks his car at the outside of Turn 1 and this briefly triggers a red flag situation.  

After an hour and fifteen minutes, the issue with the battery has been fixed and Max is able to continue on. By that time, there is still fifteen minutes left and when the flag drops, no less than 130 laps has been driven today. But not until some procedures have also been practiced, this includes driving the formation lap, doing an aborted start and finally a normal start.

Pre-Season Test 2 - Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya - Tuesday 6 March 2018

   Driver               Team                    Time           Difference  Laps
1  Sebastian Vettel 	Ferrari 		1:20.396 		   171
2  Valtteri Bottas 	Mercedes 		1:20.596 	+0.200     86
3  Max Verstappen 	Red Bull Racing 	1:20.649 	+0.253     130
4  Lewis Hamilton 	Mercedes 		1:20.808 	+0.412     91
5  Pierre Gasly 	Toro Rosso 		1:20.973 	+0.577 	   54
6  Kevin Magnussen 	Haas F1 		1:21.298 	+0.902 	   96
7  Nico Hülkenberg 	Renault 		1:21.432 	+1.036 	   48
8  Carlos Sainz  	Renault 		1:21.455 	+1.059 	   91
9  Sergey Sirotkin 	Williams 		1:21.588 	+1.192	   42
10 Sergio Perez 	Force India 		1:21.643 	+1.247 	   93
11 Marcus Ericsson 	Sauber 			1:21.706 	+1.310 	   120
12 Stoffel Vandoorne 	McLaren 		1:21.946 	+1.550 	   38
13 Lance Stroll 	Williams 		1:22.937 	+2.541     86
14 Brendon Hartley 	Toro Rosso 		------- 	           0