Max qualifies in fourth: "Made the most of it"

Published on 11 November 2017 by Stefan Meens

Max Verstappen will start the penultimate race of the season from the second row of the grid. The Dutchman qualified his Red Bull Racing in fourth, a place ahead of team mate Daniel Ricciardo but behind pole sitter Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes) and the Ferraris of Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen.

“The balance wasn't great and we are losing speed in the highspeed sections. We did make the most of it, so I'm happy about that, but if you win two out of the last four races, you hope to be more at the front” 

Looking forward to race day, Max is realistic: “We don’t have to pace to attack. Something has to happen at the start if we want to move forward.”

Q1 starts with a surprising crash. Within the opening five minutes, newly crowned World Champion Lewis Hamilton, parked his Mercedes in the barriers. The Briton lost the rear going into turn six, meaning he is out for the rest of qualifying. The other drivers not making the cut are the Saubers of Marcus Ericsson and Pascal Wehrlein, Scuderia Toro Rosso’s Pierre Gasly and Williams’ Lance Stroll.

In the second part of qualifying, the front runners - the two Ferraris, Red Bulls and remaining Mercedes - are comfortably through to Q3. Esteban Ocon (Force India), Brendan Hartley (Scuderia Toro Rosso), Stoffel Vandoorne (McLaren) and the two Haas of Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean fail to make to top ten, meaning their qualifying ends in part two.

In Q3, it is a straight fight between the Ferraris and the Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas. Going into the final run (out of two) Vettel has provisional pole. But in the dying moments of the session, Bottas pips the German by 0.038s to take his third pole of the season and career. Kimi Raikkonen lays claim to P3. The Red Bulls qualify in fourth and fifth, with Max outqualifying Daniel Ricciardo yet again.

01 77 Valtteri Bottas     Mercedes                    1:09.452 1:08.638 1:08.322 22
02  5 Sebastian Vettel    Ferrari                     1:09.643 1:08.494 1:08.360 21
03  7 Kimi Raikkonen      Ferrari                     1:09.405 1:09.116 1:08.538 18
04 33 Max Verstappen      Red Bull Racing TAG Heuer   1:09.820 1:09.050 1:08.925 18
05  3 Daniel Ricciardo    Red Bull Racing TAG Heuer   1:09.828 1:09.533 1:09.330 19
06 11 Sergio Perez        Force India Mercedes        1:10.145 1:09.760 1:09.598 21
07 14 Fernando Alonso     McLaren Honda               1:10.172 1:09.593 1:09.617 17
08 27 Nico Hulkenberg     Renault                     1:10.078 1:09.726 1:09.703 21
09 55 Carlos Sainz        Renault                     1:10.227 1:09.768 1:09.805 17
10 19 Felipe Massa        Williams Mercedes           1:09.789 1:09.612 1:09.841 16
11 31 Esteban Ocon        Force India Mercedes        1:10.168 1:09.830          17
12  8 Romain Grosjean     Haas Ferrari                1:10.148 1:09.879          16
13  2 Stoffel Vandoorne   McLaren Honda               1:10.286 1:10.116          15
14 20 Kevin Magnussen     Haas Ferrari                1:10.521 1:10.154          18
15 28 Brendon Hartley     Toro Rosso                  1:10.625 -                 15
16 94 Pascal Wehrlein     Sauber Ferrari              1:10.678                   12
17 10 Pierre Gasly        Toro Rosso                  1:10.686                   10
18 18 Lance Stroll        Williams Mercedes           1:10.776                   8
19  9 Marcus Ericsson     Sauber Ferrari              1:10.875                   12
NC 44 Lewis Hamilton      Mercedes                    -                          2

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