Max makes the most of qualifying at the Hungaroring

Published on 25 July 2015 by Stefan Meens

Ahead of qualifying, Max Verstappen aimed for a top ten spot on the grid of the Hungarian Grand Prix. In the end, qualifying in ninth meant the Dutchman's ambitions were met with an excellent lap in Q3 (1:23.679). Lewis Hamilton grabbed a commanding pole position at the Hungaroring beating Nico Rosberg by half a second. Former team mates Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari) and Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull) share the second row.

Max is happy with P9: “Because I missed out on valuable track time on Friday, it was a challenge to make the most of the tyres. There's only one quick lap in the softs so we were trying to find the right set-up in this morning's practice”, explains the Dutchman. “We started qualifying well and I didn’t make any mistakes. The team kept making improving the car by making minor adjustments to the front wing. It worked well and I think we've made the most of it.”

Qualifying opens with Q1 in which Max sets his first time on the Medium Pirellis. However, it is not until the final five minutes before everyone bolts on the soft tyres in an attempt to progress to Q2. Max feels comfortable on the quicker of the two compounds and he routinely reaches the next session by ending Q1 in P9 (1:24.0). For Jenson Button (McLaren), the Sauber duo of Marcus Ericsson and Felipe Nasr and Roberto Mehri and Will Stevens (Manor), Q1 marks the end of qualifying.

Max is one of the few drivers who gets a timed lap on the board before Q2 is abruptly red flagged. Fernando Alonso's McLaren has stopped near the pitlane entrance. As the Spaniard tries to push his car to the pits, helped by a dozen of marshals, the session is halted. Once qualifying is resumed. Max hits the track on a set of softs. His 1:23.7 is enough to make the cut as it puts him in P9. Team mate Carlos Sainz joins the ranks of the knocked out drivers with Nico Hulkenberg, Sergio Perez, Pastor Maldonado and Fernando Alonso joining the Spaniard.

For the final part of qualifying, Max opts for a different strategy compared to most of his colleagues. “I don’t like to do a run in Q3 on used tyres. That's why I only opted for one run, similar to Austria. I quite like that pressure”, explains the Dutchman. The Scuderia Toro Rosso drivers delivers with a 1:23.679, granting P9, behind the Mercedes, Ferraris, Red Bulls and Williams but ahead of Romain Grosjean in the Lotus.

Max is delighted with his qualifying efforts. “I'm pleased with ninth, that was really the maximum for today”, explains the Toro Rosso driver to Verstappen.nl. “Especially after the practice session in which we had some problems. It meant I wasn’t able to do any long runs so we'll have to wait and see how we will do in the race. However, Carlos was happy with that set-up. I'm going to try and maintain my position and see if I can attack going forwards but that might prove challenging.”

Hungaroring - Hungarian Grand Prix - Saturday 25 July

 Qualifying results
 P  No Driver             Team          Q1       Q2       Q3       Laps 
 1  44 Lewis Hamilton     Mercedes      1:22.890 1:22.285 1:22.020 20 
 2   6 Nico Rosberg       Mercedes      1:22.979 1:22.775 1:22.595 21 
 3   5 Sebastian Vettel   Ferrari       1:23.312 1:23.168 1:22.739 17 
 4   3 Daniel Ricciardo   Red Bull      1:24.408 1:23.230 1:22.774 20 
 5   7 Kimi Räikkönen     Ferrari       1:23.596 1:23.460 1:23.020 16 
 6  77 Valtteri Bottas    Williams      1:23.649 1:23.555 1:23.222 19 
 7  26 Daniil Kvyat       Red Bull      1:23.587 1:23.597 1:23.332 17 
 8  19 Felipe Massa       Williams      1:23.895 1:23.598 1:23.537 20 
 9  33 Max Verstappen     Toro Rosso    1:24.032 1:23.781 1:23.679 18 
10   8 Romain Grosjean    Lotus         1:24.242 1:23.805 1:24.181 18 
11  27 Nico Hulkenberg    Force India   1:24.115 1:23.826          13 
12  55 Carlos Sainz       Toro Rosso    1:24.623 1:23.869          16 
13  11 Sergio Perez       Force India   1:24.444 1:24.461          14 
14  13 Pastor Maldonado   Lotus         1:23.895 1:24.609          12 
15  14 Fernando Alonso    McLaren       1:24.563                    7 
16  22 Jenson Button      McLaren       1:24.739                    8 
17   9 Marcus Ericsson    Sauber        1:24.843                    8 
18  12 Felipe Nasr        Sauber        1:24.997                    8 
19  98 Roberto Merhi      Marussia      1:27.416                    8 
20  28 Will Stevens       Marussia      1:27.949                    6

On Twitter and Facebook we'll keep you updated throughout the weekend followed by a full report on Verstappen.nl at the end of the day’s action.

You can find the schedule for the Hungarian Grand Prix here. 

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