Max starts Brazilian Grand Prix from P9

Published on 14 November 2015 by Stefan Meens

Max Verstappen built on his good form displayed in FP3 by qualifying in tenth for the Brazilian Grand Prix. The Toro Rosso youngster will start the race from P9 due to an engine penalty for Red Bull Racing's Daniel Ricciardo. For the fifth time in a row it was Nico Rosberg who snatched pole position from his team mate Lewis Hamilton. Sebastian Vettel was once again best of the rest in third.

After qualifying, Max Verstappen told Verstappen.nl: “I'm happy that after yesterday’s problems we made it into Q3 on a track that doesn’t really suit our car. So it actually went quite well. We're ahead of both Lotus which is positive as well. Also, we weren’t too bad in the long runs yesterday despite not being to happy with the car then so I'm expecting things to improve tomorrow. We think it's going to stay dry so it will be a very close race. A lot will depend on the strategy as the tyres drop off a lot.”

During Q1, Max opts for to runs, both of the soft Pirelli compound. Despite his first run being good enough for P10, and thus a spot in Q2, the youngster sets the eighth quickest time in his second run. Both McLarens, Marussias and Pastor Maldonado do not make the cut.

In Q2, Max again clocks two runs. On his first he makes a small mistake. He decides to abort the lap and prepare for a final assault to secure his spot in the final part of qualifying. In the dying seconds, Max does not crack under pressure and again sets the eighth quickest lap time. His team mate Carlos Sainz failed again to qualify for Q3 and has to be content with P11. He is joined by both Saubers, Romain Grosjean and Sergio Perez in the group drivers that strand in the second part of the session.

In the final part of qualifying, the Mercedes battle for pole position. Nico Rosberg wins the battle and relegates Lewis Hamilton to second with Sebastian Vettel and Valtteri Bottas filling the second row on the grid.

Meanwhile Max opts to do just one flying lap and qualifies in tenth. Dan Ricciardo's engine penalty promotes the Dutchman to P9. His excellent performance in qualifying means Max is now levelled with Carlos Sainz in their quali duel, bringing it to 9-9 with one more race remaining.

Autódromo José Carlos Pace - Brazilian Grand Prix - Thursday 14 Novemeber 2015

 P  No Driver             Team          Q1         Q2         Q3       Laps
 1   6 Nico Rosberg       Mercedes      1:11.746   1:12.213   1:11.282   12
 2  44 Lewis Hamilton     Mercedes      1:11.682   1:11.665   1:11.360   12
 3   5 Sebastian Vettel   Ferrari       1:12.240   1:11.928   1:11.804   16
 4  77 Valtteri Bottas    Williams      1:12.934   1:12.374   1:12.085   18
 5   7 Kimi Räikkönen     Ferrari       1:12.185   1:12.243   1:12.144   16
 6  27 Nico Hulkenberg    Force India   1:12.595   1:12.485   1:12.265   18
 7  26 Daniil Kvyat       Red Bull      1:12.730   1:12.527   1:12.322   20
 8  19 Felipe Massa       Williams      1:12.980   1:12.858   1:12.415   21
 9   3 Daniel Ricciardo   Red Bull      1:12.639   1:12.825   1:12.417   17
10  33 Max Verstappen     Toro Rosso    1:12.824   1:12.712   1:12.739   15
11  12 Felipe Nasr        Sauber        1:13.111   1:12.989              14
12  55 Carlos Sainz       Toro Rosso    1:13.267   1:13.045              15
13  11 Sergio Perez       Force India   1:13.140   1:13.147              13
14   9 Marcus Ericsson    Sauber        1:13.346   1:13.233              14
15   8 Romain Grosjean    Lotus         1:13.056   1:13.913              11
16  13 Pastor Maldonado   Lotus         1:13.385                          5
17  22 Jenson Button      McLaren       1:13.425                          6
18  53 Alexander Rossi    Marussia      1:16.151                          6
19  28 Will Stevens       Marussia      1:16.283                          6
NC  14 Fernando Alonso    McLaren                                         2 

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