Max scored points in both of the races held on the International circuit at Silverstone. He finished in 7th and 10th places and showed strong race pace throughout the weekend. 

With only one practice session prior to qualifying on Friday, the Hitech Racing team were only able to fine tune Max’s car set-up. They did a good job and Max was comfortably inside the top ten and confident of another strong performance following his recent impressive form at the Masters of F3 event at Zolder last weekend.

Qualifying was, as usual, very close with just tenths of a second separating the top ten drivers. Max put in the 8th best time in the first session, but was disappointed afterwards as he had been baulked on his best lap by a slow moving car through the final series of bends. This lost him a couple of tenths and both he and the team knew he could have been 6th on the grid.

The second session was not as good. Max didn’t get the best out of the new tyres, putting in his fastest lap right at the end of the session and this time he was only 11th quickest.

The 26 drivers lined up for the start of the first race on Saturday with Max on the outside of the 4th row. He got off the line well, but lost a place through Beckets on the opening lap to drop to 9th. The first half of the race was quite processional with the group of cars Max was in slowly closing up on the 6th place driver. A coming together at the Abbey Hairpin presented Max with an opportunity and he grabbed it, passing two cars and taking 7th place. A very strong middle section of the race put him in a safe position, slightly gaining on the cars in front and never under pressure from those behind. His pace was good, setting the race’s 4th fastest lap and he crossed the line in a comfortable 7th place, picking up four championship points.

Max was happy after the race with his and the car’s performance;

“It’s very difficult to overtake in F3 and pretty much you finish where you started. I took advantage of the two guys in front having a bit of a moment and so got up to 7th, but the good thing was my pace. Only the three leaders were lapping faster and I think if I had started higher up the grid I could have run in the top four. The team have made progress since Spa and I feel we’re back to where we need to be in terms of the car’s competitiveness.”

The second race saw a fantastic start by Max elevate him up to 9th from 11th on the grid, but he defended his place into the tight Abbey Hairpin and lost momentum on the exit, slipping back to 10th by the end of the first lap. He then got into a race long dual with Red Bull driver Brendon Hartley. The pair were nose to tail with first Hartley getting the better of Max through the complex and then Max snatching the place back with a brave move into Copse. Hartley found a way back past under braking for the Hairpin and Max didn’t have another opportunity to take the place back. The pair of them benefited from Sam Abay’s late excursion into the gravel, thus handing Max another points scoring finish in 10th place.

It had again been a race with little overtaking, demonstrating the importance of qualifying as Max explained;

“Starting down in 11th place it is always going to be hard to get a good result. My lap times were close to the leader’s pace, but overtaking is so hard because you can’t follow other cars close enough much of the time to get any opportunities to make a move. I know I’ve got the pace and the car now to run with the front runners, I’ve just got to make sure I qualify up there to get results. At least I’ve come away with points from both the races.”

The next races will be next weekend at the challenging street circuit in the Romanian capital of Bucharest. Max raced there last season and will have the advantage of knowing the track. If he can use that and get the best performance out of the car in qualifying he should be amongst the front-runners and hopefully gain that first win in F3.