Max untouchable in Formula 3 races Real Racers Never Quit on Road America
Published on 31 March 2020 by Kees-Jan Koster
On Monday evening, Max Verstappen won both races of “Real Racers Never Quit by Team Redline” at Road America circuit. In the first race, Max drove a Formula 3 car in the virtual championship on iRacing from pole to victory unthreatened.
In the second race Max started from P2. After a tumultuous first lap, in which Daniel Juncadella and Lando Norris went off the track, both self-inflicted, took Max the lead. In the exciting final stages of the race, Max had great difficulty to keep Juncadella at bay. Max won the race with only a two tenths lead and was able to strengthen his lead in the championship, which can be seen through live streams of Team Redline on live.teamredline.com.
Max looks back on the evening satisfied: “I had to have a bit of a revenge on the V8 Supercars fiasco from last Friday. This was a lot better and I am really happy with it. I could only do three laps in practice as my PC crashed. But I enjoyed it a lot today. This track has some good slipstream opportunities. But still it is difficult to overtake.”
In the final lap of the second race Verstappen and Juncadella touched each other in the battle for the lead. Both were able to continue and finished first and second. Max gives his view on the incident: “Daniel was coming a little bit closer every lap. I tried not to give him a tow, but then I made a mistake after the hairpin and lost three tenths. Then he came into the tow, resulting in an exciting last lap. I did not know exactly what happened initially, but looking back to the onboard video I did not turn to the right. I went straight and the track went to the left and so we touched. It is what it is. We did not go off the track and finished in the same positions.”
Next Wednesday are race nine and ten on the schedule, in which they will drive GT cars. The circuit will be announced just prior to the first practice. Last Wednesday, Verstappen won both races in the GT cars and he is looking very much forward to the next showdown: “It is full in on Wednesday and trying to score as many points as possible. Hopefully it will go well again with the GT cars and not the V8 cars again on Friday.”
Just like last Monday, drivers will be using the cars from the former Formula 3 Euroseries, the class in which Max participated in 2014. While the previous Formula 3 race was on the legendary Spa-Francorchamps circuit, this time the more than forty professional drivers will be on the Road America circuit.
For the first race Max qualified on pole. Formula 1 colleague Lando Norris accompanied Max on the first row, in a competitive field with he first 30 drivers within one second of each other. Max has a good start and keeps in the lead with Norris close behind. The brothers Kelvin and Shildon van der Linde in P3 and P4.
In lap four, former Formula 1 driver Stoffel Vandoorne is hit upside down, causing the Belgian to fall back. Meanwhile Kelvin van der Linde and Norris battle for P2. This enables Max to strengthen his lead. Norris is overtaken by the two van der Linder brothers and falls back into P4.
In the midfield there are a couple of big incidents, with multiple drivers going upside down. In the penultimate lap Kelvin van der Linde spins and he falls back into P5. In the lead, Max continues threatened to the victory, with more than two seconds ahead of Sheldon van der Linde. Norris completes the podium, in front of Dutchman Bent Viscaal in fourth place.
Results round 4, race 1 - Real Racers Never Quit by Team Redline
Max qualifies second for the second race, while Daniel Juncadella is on pole. Right from the start there is a battle between Norris and Verstappen. After exiting the fast turn 10, Juncadella goes wide and loses the lead to Max, with Norris overtaking Verstappen one turn later. This is short-lived as Norris spins while exiting the last turn and falls back into P19. This enables Max to take the lead again, with Juncadella and Sheldon van der Linde behind him in P2 and P3.
In the last lap Juncadella closes up to Verstappen and the Spaniard tries to overtake on the straight before turn 12. They touch, but both drivers can continue the race. Max finishes first, with Juncadella two tenths behind. Max is well in the lead in the championship, with five victories in eight races.
Next Wednesday 1st April at 21.00 the fifth event takes place of the in total six rounds of Real Racers Never Quit. You can watch it live at live.teamredline.com. Click here for more information about the series.
Results round 4, race 2 - Real Racers Never Quit by Team Redline
