Max delighted with P9 in Sochi qualifying

Published on 10 October 2015 by Stefan Meens

After an excellent performance in qualifying, Max Verstappen will start the Russian Grand Prix from ninth on the grid. The Dutchman progressed to Q3 in which Nico Rosberg claimed pole position ahead of Lewis Hamilton and Valterri Bottas. Max Verstappen's team mate, Carlos Sainz did not participate in qualifying. The Spaniard is recovering from a major crash in FP3, which he escaped unharmed.

“I'm very happy, especially considering I couldn’t do qualifying runs in FP3 and the track is new for me, says Max to Verstappen.nl. “It's good to be in front of our 'big brothers' Red Bull Racing. My quickest lap was really good. I don’t think I could've gone any much faster. For tomorrow I hope we can show the same race pace as we had in the last races. One or two points should be achievable.”

At the start of Q1, Max is quick off the mark and sets the fastest lap. After the whole field completes their first flying lap, the Dutchman has dropped to P9 but he still has to set a time on the super softs. On these, the faster of the two Pirelli compounds, Max improves his lap time by over a second ending Q1 in ninth. Marcus Ericsson, Fernando Alonso and both Manors don’t make the cut.

In the second part of qualifying, Max is not satisfied with his first run. Despite running on the super softs, he is not able to stay ahead of his main competitors. On the team radio he complains about the lack of grip the tyres give him.

Nevertheless, the youngster heads out for another run. This time around he is one of the first drivers to clock a second lap in Q2, which results in a tense couple of minutes at the very end. Max drops to tenth but stays there, propelling him to the final part of qualifying. For Felipe Nasr, Jenson Button and Pastor Maldonado, quali ends in Q2 with Felipe Massa and Daniil Kvyat as the surprise names joining that list.

In Q3, Max opts to do just one run. He sets the ninth fastest time and remains there with Red Bull Racing's Daniel Ricciardo failing to beat the Dutchman's time. At the front, Lewis Hamilton fails for the second time in a row to grab pole with Nico Rosberg affirming his fine form around the Sochi circuit. Valterri Bottas is the best of the rest, beating both Ferraris to P3.

Sochi Autodrom - Russian Grand Prix - Saturday 10 October

 P No Driver             Team          Time      Laps
 1  6 Nico Rosberg       Mercedes      1:37.113    20
 2 44 Lewis Hamilton     Mercedes      1:37.433    18
 3 77 Valtteri Bottas    Williams      1:37.912    26
 4  5 Sebastian Vettel   Ferrari       1:37.965    15
 5  7 Kimi Räikkönen     Ferrari       1:38.348    18
 6 27 Nico Hulkenberg    Force India   1:38.659    21
 7 11 Sergio Perez       Force India   1:38.691    19
 8  8 Romain Grosjean    Lotus         1:38.787    19
 9 33 Max Verstappen     Toro Rosso    1:38.924    23
10  3 Daniel Ricciardo   Red Bull      1:39.728    18
11 26 Daniil Kvyat       Red Bull      1:39.214    18
12 12 Felipe Nasr        Sauber        1:39.323    18
13 22 Jenson Button      McLaren       1:39.763    15
14 13 Pastor Maldonado   Lotus         1:39.811    15
15 19 Felipe Massa       Williams      1:39.895    17
16 14 Fernando Alonso    McLaren       1:40.144     7
17  9 Marcus Ericsson    Sauber        1:40.660     9
18 28 Will Stevens       Marussia      1:43.693     9
19 98 Roberto Merhi      Marussia      1:43.804     8 

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