A strong sprint race performance saw Max finish 11th at the European Grand Prix street race venue in Valencia……..

It was a difficult weekend for Max on this, his first experience of the high speed street track around the port of the Spanish city. It wasn’t until Sunday morning’s sprint race that he found a set-up on his Ocean Racing Technology car that gave him the pace he needed.

Qualifying on Friday was a big surprise with both Max and his team mate Fabio Leimer ending up on the back row of the grid for Saturday’s feature race. Max had begun the session well, posting the 10th fastest time on his first new tyre run, but rapidly fell down the order as he was unable to find enough of an improvement on his second set of tyres.

“I’m really shocked by that.” He said after qualifying. “The car didn’t feel awful at all. We’ve had issues with the stability under the heavy braking here, but apart from that it wasn’t too bad. I think the set-up we’ve been using this season puts too much compliance in the car – it’s too soft overall, and here that has really taken away the pace.”

A drastic re-think for the feature race should have given Max an opportunity to move up through the field, especially with the high level of attrition around the barrier-lined track, but unfortunately he didn’t get a chance to capitalise on it. A multi-car collision at the start of the race saw cars spearing into the walls and each other as the field streamed down to the first corner. Max arrived at the scene and had nowhere to go, ploughing into a couple of stationary cars. His race was over with damage to the left front suspension and he would have to wait until the sprint race the following day to see if the set-up changes would work.

Right from the start it was clear that Max and the Ocean engineers had improved things. He got off the line well and managed to avoid the expected first lap dramas. Settling into a good pace he immediately was battling to get into the top ten. All race long he tried to find a way through with a car that was obviously more to his liking.

The race had all the British drivers together with Max and Sam Bird fighting over 10th place and the pair of them steadily pulled clear of Oliver Turvey in 12th. At the chequered flag Max secured 11th place and was happy to at least end his weekend with a strong performance after the dramas of the first two days.

“That’s a lot better.” The 19 year-old smiled after the race. “To come through from the back of the grid and almost get into the top ten – I’m happy with that. The car was still quite difficult to drive, but obviously had much better pace. I think we’ve learnt a lot this weekend and I want to carry that forward to the next event which will be my home races at Silverstone.”

Those next races, supporting the British Grand Prix, will take place in two weeks time on 10th and 11th July.