Max fifth in second Hockenheim practice: 'Not too far behind'

Published on 26 July 2019 by Stefan Meens

Max Verstappen ended Friday practice with fifth place in FP2. In the scorching heat, the Dutchman completed 23 laps of the Hockenheim circuit. Similar to the morning session, the Ferrari’s set the pace. This time it was Charles Leclerc who set the quickest time, ahead of team mate Sebastian Vettel. Lewis Hamilton completed the top three.

“It’s hot and sweaty, but only when you’re stationary in the car, is it really tough. When you’re driving it’s fine and not too hot”, said Max after the second practice session. “Today could’ve been better but we’re not too far behind. We have to improve a couple of things but generally speaking it’s looking not too bad. We haven’t found the perfect balance so there’s still some work to do.”

Max thinks there is still some pace to be unlocked going into Saturday. “I had to come in on the soft compound to change a couple of engine settings. After that, I had to continue on that used set and there just isn’t as much grip compared to a brand new set.”

The changes were prompted by the FIA. “They asked us to change something, that’s why we came in. We changed a couple of things in the engine set-up, which meant we switched back to the normal setting. After that, it was fine.”

Looking ahead to Saturday, with rain forecasted, Max concluded: “It could be wet tomorrow and dry on Sunday. Regardless, I’ll be ready.”

With an ambient temperature of 37 and track temperature north of 50 degrees, most teams wait to hit the track at the start of the session. Twenty minutes in, Max is the last of the drivers to eventually steer his car out of the pits. After a six lap stint on the medium Pirelli tyres, he returns to the team.

At the halfway mark, Max attempts a low fuel run on the soft tyres. After two laps, and informing the team of ‘no power’, he comes back into the pits. His mechanics appear to solve the problem quickly and, a few minutes later, the Dutchman is out on circuit again.

With twenty minutes to go, Max heads out for a long run on the medium Pirellis. Sadly his stint is interrupted by a red flag caused by Aston Martin Red Bull Racing team mate Pierre Gasly. The Frenchman crashed hard in the final corner resulting in a heavily damaged RB15. Thankfully, Gasly is uninjured and after the track is cleared, the session resumes.

In the remainder of the session, Max completes a couple of laps on race pace, meaning is best time is not bettered.

At the end of session, it is the Ferraris that lead the way with Leclerc outpacing local hero Vettel by a tenth. The Mercedes of Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas are third and fourth fastest.

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Results second free practice Germany:

pos	driver	team	time	gap	laps
1	Charles Leclerc	LEC	Ferrari	1:13.449		33
2	Sebastian Vettel	VET	Ferrari	1:13.573	+0.124s	30
3	Lewis Hamilton	HAM	Mercedes	1:13.595	+0.146s	30
4	Valtteri Bottas	BOT	Mercedes	1:14.111	+0.662s	30
5	Max Verstappen	VER	Red Bull Racing Honda	1:14.133	+0.684s	23
6	Romain Grosjean	GRO	Haas Ferrari	1:14.179	+0.730s	33
7	Lance Stroll	STR	Racing Point BWT Mercedes	1:14.268	+0.819s	32
8	Kimi Räikkönen	RAI	Alfa Romeo Racing Ferrari	1:14.458	+1.009s	33
9	Nico Hulkenberg	HUL	Renault	1:14.472	+1.023s	26
10	Sergio Perez	PER	Racing Point BWT Mercedes	1:14.518	+1.069s	30
11	Carlos Sainz	SAI	McLaren Renault	1:14.662	+1.213s	34
12	Daniil Kvyat	KVY	Scuderia Toro Rosso Honda	1:14.800	+1.351s	39
13	Daniel Ricciardo	RIC	Renault	1:15.010	+1.561s	33
14	Alexander Albon	ALB	Scuderia Toro Rosso Honda	1:15.062	+1.613s	36
15	Pierre Gasly	GAS	Red Bull Racing Honda	1:15.089	+1.640s	19
16	Lando Norris	NOR	McLaren Renault	1:15.247	+1.798s	29
17	Antonio Giovinazzi	GIO	Alfa Romeo Racing Ferrari	1:15.406	+1.957s	31
18	Kevin Magnussen	MAG	Haas Ferrari	1:15.470	+2.021s	28
19	George Russell	RUS	Williams Mercedes	1:16.900	+3.451s	27
20	Robert Kubica	KUB	Williams Mercedes	1:16.980	+3.531s	26