Max P4 in Austria’s second free practice: “Not far off from the top”

Published on 07 July 2017 by Mike Motilall

Max Verstappen came in fourth after the second free practice for the Austrian Grand Prix ended. The Dutchman started a bit later with the session due to a minor brake issue, but was able to look back at a very productive practice with 32 laps to his name. Just like in the morning session, Lewis Hamilton topped the leaderboard in his Mercedes. Behind of him, Sebastian Vettel and Valtteri Bottas brought it home in second and third.

According to Verstappen, it was a positive day despite the brake issue at the beginning of the second free practice: “It took us about thirty minutes”, Max tells Verstappen.nl after the session. “When it was eventually fixed, it didn’t go all too bad and we managed to almost finish off our complete schedule. All in all a positive day.”

The conditions were, according to Verstappen, not easy today: “It’s of course not the highest of grip track. You either have short or very long corners, so when you have a little moment, it’s difficult to correct it with the gravel trap and the high kerbs next to the track as well. The yellow kerb stones are very high for our Formula 1-cars. They haven’t been built for that.”

Despite the speed that was shown, Max is still in the dark regarding his position after qualifying: “That’s difficult to say. I am not fully happy about today in terms of the balance of the car, but we were not too far off, so we’ll see. We can improve in every single area. The car didn’t feel quite perfect in both the short and long runs. There is still some more work to be done, but we are not far off from the top, so we’ll see tomorrow.”

It rained after the end of the first free practice, but the track is dry again when the second free practice gets underway. However, there are still some dark, menacing clouds around the track. As Ferrari-running Sebastian Vettel betters the lap time record on the Red Bull with a 1:05.630, Max Verstappen remains in the pits at the beginning of the session with a minor brake issue on his RB13.

With still over an hour remaining on the clock, the Red Bull Racing-mechanics have fixed the issue and Max heads out on track on a set of the ultra-soft tyres. The first timed lap of the Dutchman is a 1:06.584, good enough for the sixth spot at that moment. After that, he betters his time to a 1:06.028 and moves up to P4. After a stint of eleven laps, Verstappen comes back in to his team.

In his second run, Max heads back out again on the ultra-soft tyres strapped on to his car. Verstappen manages to better his time to a 1:05.832, which puts him back in fourth. After a run of six laps, the youngster briefly comes back in and shifts his attention in doing long runs as preparation for the race. Doing consistent lap times of around one minute ten’s, Max is able to keep up with the tempo of the Ferrari's and Mercedes.

Despite countless off track excursions and drivers spinning off track, nobody suffers any damages in a second free practice that, once again, Lewis Hamilton managed to top. The Brit betters his own lap time record with a 1:05.483, which he had previously broken during the morning session. Sebastian Vettel and Valtteri Bottas come home in second and third. Max Verstappen is in the top five with the fourth fastest time, just 0.35 seconds off of Hamilton’s pace.

Austrian Grand Prix – Red Bull Ring – Friday 7 July

RESULTS FREE PRACTICE TWO

01 44 Lewis Hamilton      Mercedes                    1:05.483          30
02  5 Sebastian Vettel    Ferrari                     1:05.630 +0.147s  50
03 77 Valtteri Bottas     Mercedes                    1:05.699 +0.216s  41
04 33 Max Verstappen      Red Bull Racing TAG Heuer   1:05.832 +0.349s  33
05  3 Daniel Ricciardo    Red Bull Racing TAG Heuer   1:05.873 +0.390s  27
06  7 Kimi Räikkönen      Ferrari                     1:06.144 +0.661s  54
07 20 Kevin Magnussen     Haas Ferrari                1:06.591 +1.108s  43
08 14 Fernando Alonso     McLaren Honda               1:06.732 +1.249s  27
09 27 Nico Hulkenberg     Renault                     1:06.735 +1.252s  42
10  8 Romain Grosjean     Haas Ferrari                1:06.763 +1.280s  52
11 31 Esteban Ocon        Force India Mercedes        1:06.849 +1.366s  50
12  2 Stoffel Vandoorne   McLaren Honda               1:06.859 +1.376s  37
13 26 Daniil Kvyat        Toro Rosso                  1:06.906 +1.423s  34
14 19 Felipe Massa        Williams Mercedes           1:07.065 +1.582s  50
15 55 Carlos Sainz        Toro Rosso                  1:07.100 +1.617s  24
16 18 Lance Stroll        Williams Mercedes           1:07.468 +1.985s  46
17 11 Sergio Perez        Force India Mercedes        1:07.509 +2.026s  41
18 30 Jolyon Palmer       Renault                     1:07.623 +2.140s  7
19 94 Pascal Wehrlein     Sauber Ferrari              1:08.782 +3.299s  49
20  9 Marcus Ericsson     Sauber Ferrari              1:08.870 +3.387s  51

Click here for our Austrian competition and a chance to win shoes from the MV collection!