Max fifth in Brazil FP2: "Room for improvement"

Published on 10 November 2017 by Stefan Meens

Max Verstappen was fifth quickest during the Friday Practice Session for the Brazilian Grand Prix. Mercedes set the pace with Lewis Hamilton fastest ahead of team mate Valtteri Bottas. Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo completed the top three.

“We didn’t fully find the grip. The short run on the super-softs wasn’t that great. But we’re not far off. The long runs looked decent, but there’s room for improvement.”

Looking ahead to Sunday’s race, Max is tentative about his chances: “I don’t know. Mercedes is quick, but if we can improve tomorrow, we can get close. We’ll see.”

Haas F1 is the first team out on track with Romain Grosjean, followed by Antonio Giovinazzi. The latter replaces Kevin Magnussen for just this session. Ten minutes into the session, Max heads out for his first run. On a set of softs, the Dutchman clocks the quickest time thus far. Soon after, the Ferraris and Mercedes enter the mix with Hamilton, Bottas and Raikkonen all battling for the top spots.

Meanwhile, Marcus Ericsson is responsible for the first crash of the day. The Swede gets it wrong going into turn 11 and ends up in the tyre wall. Luckily the car is not too badly damaged, and Ericsson is able to drive his Sauber back to the pits.

The second half of the session is all about the long runs. Unlike most drivers on the super-softs, Max opts to do his stints on the softs. Due to the nature of the long runs – higher fuel loads and tyre management – the lap times do not improve during the remainder of FP2.

Despite a few specks of rain in the final fifteen minutes, the drivers can continue to run until the end of the session, ultimately with Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas at the top of the timing charts.

Brazilian Grand Prix - Autodromo Jose Carlos Page - Friday 10 November

FREE PRACTICE 2 RESULTS:

01 44 Lewis Hamilton      Mercedes                    1:09.515  42
02 77 Valtteri Bottas     Mercedes                    1:09.563 +0.048s  45
03  3 Daniel Ricciardo    Red Bull Racing TAG Heuer   1:09.743 +0.228s  37
04  5 Sebastian Vettel    Ferrari                     1:09.875 +0.360s  48
05 33 Max Verstappen      Red Bull Racing TAG Heuer   1:09.886 +0.371s  38
06  7 Kimi Raikkonen      Ferrari                     1:10.117 +0.602s  45
07 31 Esteban Ocon        Force India Mercedes        1:10.306 +0.791s  49
08 19 Felipe Massa        Williams Mercedes           1:10.373 +0.858s  42
09 27 Nico Hulkenberg     Renault                     1:10.396 +0.881s  39
10 14 Fernando Alonso     McLaren Honda               1:10.655 +1.140s  31
11 55 Carlos Sainz        Renault                     1:10.685 +1.170s  42
12 11 Sergio Perez        Force India Mercedes        1:10.695 +1.180s  43
13  2 Stoffel Vandoorne   McLaren Honda               1:10.902 +1.387s  38
14 18 Lance Stroll        Williams Mercedes           1:11.064 +1.549s  44
15  8 Romain Grosjean     Haas Ferrari                1:11.300 +1.785s  39
16 10 Pierre Gasly        Toro Rosso                  1:11.422 +1.907s  44
17 28 Brendon Hartley     Toro Rosso                  1:11.821 +2.306s  54
18 94 Pascal Wehrlein     Sauber Ferrari              1:11.857 +2.342s  43
19  9 Marcus Ericsson     Sauber Ferrari              1:11.989 +2.474s  17
20 50 Antonio Giovinazzi  Haas Ferrari                1:12.417 +2.902s  37

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