Max put in a determined drive during Thursday’s qualifying session, earning himself a place on the inside of the 4th row for today’s feature race.

His strong pace has been evident all week in the test sessions, always putting lap times in the top ten, but the rapid 19 year-old confirmed his potential in the half hour qualifying period late on Thursday afternoon to set 7th fastest time and establish himself as the fastest of the four British drivers.

It could have been even better had he not been baulked on his final quick lap, which he was already 3 tenths of a second faster on. Had he managed to finish the lap at that level then he would have been starting the first Asian Series race from the front row!

Ultimately that wasn’t to be, however 7th place is testament to his improving pace and the sterling work put in by the Carlin team – new to GP2 this season. Obviously delighted with his best ever qualifying performance in GP2, Max commented afterwards;

“I’m happy with that! Could have been on the front row if I didn’t get held up, but hey, I guess a lot of drivers found traffic a problem and at the end of the day 7th is good. Better than I expected, but it’s been going well all week really. My engineer and the whole Carlin team are doing a great job and we’re consistently in the top ten so my confidence is building. Hopefully this will give me a good platform to get good results in the races now.”