It was an incident filled finale to Max’s season at the final races of the 2010 GP2 series at the Yas Marina circuit in Abu Dhabi. Hit out of a points scoring finish in the feature race and an excellent recovery drive in Sunday’s sprint race gave him plenty to reflect on………..

Max ended his first season in GP2 with fighting performances in both of the weekend’s races. He capitalised on a 4th row start in Saturday’s feature race to put himself comfortably in the points before being knocked off. He struggled on, hampered by a damaged car to eventually come home 12th.

Sunday brought more drama when an electrical fault on the warm-up laps had to be fixed on the grid. As a result Max started the first lap at the back of the 24 car field, but with a demonstration of how to overtake in GP2 he battled his way back up to 13th place by the chequered flag.

“I really hoped for better results from this weekend and I think I had the pace to get some more points,” he stated after Sunday’s disappointment. “The car was set up as well as I’ve had all season and I had the chance to definitely get a couple of top ten finishes, but instead I’ve been fighting for positions below that so I’m disappointed.”

The Abu Dhabi event had started well with a solid and consistent performance during Friday’s free practice session which had Max inside the top ten for the majority of his laps.

He repeated his pace in the afternoon’s qualifying session as well. Times were incredibly close and Max lapped within a second of the front row, but found himself in 12th place. Luckily for him several drivers were later found to have committed infringements during the session and received grid penalties. This elevated Max to start Saturday’s race from 8th on the grid.

A little excessive wheelspin at the start lost Max a place initially, but he quickly recovered and held 9th place over the opening laps until the safety car was deployed. Excellent reactions at the re-start gave him the opportunity to gain a place back and he took it, slicing down the inside of Jules Bianchi into the first corner. The retirement of his Ocean Racing team mate handed him another place as well so as things settled down again Max was running in 7th place.

Then on lap 9, Max ran a bit wide out of the chicane allowing Bianchi to close and get a run on him down the next straight. Bianchi dived to the right as the pair approached the next corner and he tried to go around the outside of Max. The Frenchman completely misjudged the manoeuvre, not allowing enough room and drove straight into the front of Max’s car, taking them both off the track.

With his car in the anti-stall mode Max had to wait to get going again and when he did, he found the steering on his Dallara was bent. The compulsory pit stop for new tyres gave the  team a chance to inspect the car and as it was safe, he carried on, albeit down in 13th place. With his pace hampered by the damaged suspension, Max couldn’t challenge for any more places and crossed the line where he had rejoined – in 13th place.

“It was a real shame that Bianchi drove into me,” the 19 year-old said afterwards, “I felt I could have easily run with the group I was in before the collision, my pace was as quick, if not quicker than they were, so I think a really good points scoring finish was definitely on.”

Sunday’s sprint race also brought disappointment when the electrical problem contributed to dropping him to the back of the field. Undaunted, Max set about making up places right from the start. With every lap he took advantage of his superior pace and gained places with an aggressive drive to eventually finish 13th.

“That was a tough race, but enjoyable.” He commented afterwards. “I’m not happy with being down in 13th place, but I had to fight for that and the car felt great. If I hadn’t had the problem off the start then I think I could have got a good result. It gave me the confidence to pass and I used that to move up through the field.”