A season-best result of 9th place was Max’s reward in Turkey for a very strong performance in the latest races of the GP2 series at the Istanbul Park circuit…….

Max just missed out on his first points in the 2010 season with 9th place in Saturday’s feature race and followed this up with 11th in Sunday’s sprint event.

He had shown great pace all weekend and the 19 year-old produced his best qualifying performance of the season so far, lapping less than a second from the pole position time and claiming a place on the 8th row of the grid.

Unfortunately he gave himself a lot of work to do as Saturday’s race started and Max bogged down in his Ocean Racing Technology car, dropping down to 20th place at the end of the opening lap. A combination of bold overtaking moves, conserving his tyres until the end of the race and avoiding the inevitable mistakes of others, saw him steadily climb back up through the field.

It had been an eventful race for the youngest driver in the 24 strong field and Max was very happy to get 9th place. He commented;

“I got caught out at the start by trying to leave it to the last possible moment to get into the bite-point of the clutch because it was so hot. I misjudged it and nearly stalled! After the first lap I settled into my rythymn and tried to lap consistently without degrading the rear tyres too much. This worked well for me and towards the end of the race my car was very strong compared to others and this really helped me get the result.”

The sprint race on Sunday wasn’t quite so eventful even though Max again was slow away at the start. He didn’t fall as far down the field as on the day before and after an early race battle with Johnny Cecotto, which Max got the better of, he settled into a secure 11th place which he held to the chequered flag.

“That was harder work.” He said afterwards, “The car wasn’t quite as good today and I struggled to look after the tyres as well. Too much understeer was costing me time and although I could pretty much keep up with the group in front, I was never in a position to able to make up any more places.”

“Still it’s been my best weekend in the main GP2 series as far as the results and also my pace is concerned. I had never been to this circuit before and I’m pleased with my overall performance. I think I’ve learned a lot more about looking after the tyres and I was happy with how I coped physically, especially with the very hot conditions we’ve had this weekend.”

Max will be in action again in four weeks time with the GP2 series moving to the street track in Valencia at the European Grand Prix on the 26th / 27th June 2010.