The Dutch youngster, who last week stormed into the record books with a convincing win in the Spanish Grand Prix, heads off to Monaco having topped the timesheets on the final day of the first in-season test.
The ten drivers on duty were busier than yesterday, despite two red flag periods, one when Jordan King went off into the gravel at T7 this morning and again later when Daniil Kvyat stopped on track.
Once again, the cars sported all manner of contraptions as the teams worked on aerodynamics for the coming races.
Verstappen had a busy day, completing 118 laps, running with tyres and a setup similar to those used at the weekend. He finished 0.739s ahead of his nearest rival. Of much greater significance, he completed his program with no reliability issues.
The youngster carried on the aero development work started yesterday by Daniel Ricciardo. His program, however, had the additional target of getting the driver comfortable in the car and comfortable with his crew. Despite having already won a grand prix in the RB12, Verstappen is still getting to know the car, and thus the great benefit of the test day was allowing him to fine-tune his setup preferences and develop relationships with his engineers and crew.
"It was good to get back in the car today," said Verstappen. "The car is good to drive, very enjoyable and we achieved very good mileage. We didn't have any problems and could run the whole day. For me personally it was good to have the opportunity to get even more comfortable with the car. I was able to try some new things and find ways to improve my performance. I learned a lot about the RB12 today, which is very, very positive."
"A big part of the day was for Max Verstappen to keep working with his crew and his team of engineers, just to build up that rapport," said Head of Race Engineering, Guillaume Rocquelin. "We've also been looking at the setup options that he prefers.
"I know he's won a race but ultimately he's only been with us a week, so there's still a lot that we need to work on together as we get to know each other. We had to go through the various options and evaluate them with Max, see what he likes – things like the layout of his steering wheel and what he wants to see on the display. On top of that we had a normal run plan, very similar to yesterday, working on medium-to-long term development of the car. It went well.
"We did 118 laps despite doing some really short runs for aero-mapping. It was a very solid day and, overall, a very solid test with 200+ laps, no issues with the car and a good program of work completed."
Bahrain point scorer Stoffel Vandoorne returned to the cockpit of the MP4-31 for the first time since that amazing debut, the Belgian continuing yesterday's programme, evaluating components, fine-tuning set-up and adding to the data gathered. The morning's running focused on tyre testing and strategy, specifically on the softer tyre compounds, with several runs on the Supersoft tyre.
"The car felt good straight away," said the youngster. "Of course, I had a few laps of adjusting to the car, but it definitely has progressed since I raced it in Bahrain. It's been a positive and productive day.
"Although it's easier to get into the car having experienced a full race weekend, there is always a need to readjust for F1, especially after racing in Super Formula, but I quickly got used to it.
"The car feels better in every area, with downforce feeling much improved compared to Bahrain. As a racing driver, you want to spend as much time as possible in the car, but I try and optimise every moment I have, and I feel like I've had the chance to do that today. All in all, the progress with the car is good, so I'm happy."
"As we have come to expect, Stoffel has driven both quickly and consistently," added, Team Manager, Dave Redding, "providing good feedback on each and every test item on the programme.
"The morning started with a continuation of the aero correlation work from yesterday. Once completed, the rest of the morning was spent evaluating both aero and mechanical changes on new tyres, with the afternoon spent carrying out a similar programme on used tyres over longer runs. The programme featured both Monaco-specific upgrades, as well as medium-term development components.
"Both the chassis and power unit have run without any issues on both days, which, combined with the team's hard work, has meant we have been able to get through our extensive test programme."
"We have finished another good day of testing with Stoffel," confirmed Satoshi Nakamura, Honda's Principal Engineer. "During the morning, we continued the power unit mapping that we started yesterday, targeted for the Monaco circuit. We spent the afternoon on longer stints and race simulation, in which we focused heavily on energy management.
"The data gathered will be further analysed in Japan, and fine-tuned for next weekend's race."
A late change saw Pascal Wehrlein replace Esteban Ocon, a move that will cost Lewis Hamilton his chance of taking part in the Silverstone test.
The German completed 65 laps before the lunch break and a further 68 laps in the afternoon as he focused on aero data collection exercises.
"That was a good day," said the German. "A bit unexpected! The team called me yesterday evening as they couldn't finish their test programme and needed an experienced driver to finish it off, so I came back to the track to do a seat fitting that night!
"We did 133 laps today - two race distances - and finished the test programme, which was important for the team.
"We tried a few different setups during the morning - mainly looking at aerodynamic with the aero rig. Then we did some long runs in the afternoon, so a good programme. I must say I really enjoyed the car - it felt amazing! I'm now really looking forward to my first Monaco Grand Prix next week."
Having been dropped yesterday in favour of Sebastian Vettel, Antonio Fuoco soon got to grips with the SF16-H, completing 116 laps.
"We did a good job today, a lot of laps, a lot of kilometres and it was a very positive day," beamed the youngster. "The most complicated thing about an F1 car compared to the GP3 car I'm racing in the championship is managing the various procedures. And the extra downforce makes it more demanding, so some training is useful.
"Today, we worked on set-up, covering a bit of what Sebastian had done as a comparison. We tried some new components, but nothing special.
"Compared to last year's test I did in the 2015 car, it's hard to draw comparisons. When I was driving in Austria the conditions were completely different. However, I'd say this year's car is an improvement, it works very well. We ran a lot today and in general I did a good job with the team and I'd like to really thank the Scuderia and the Ferrari Driver Academy for this opportunity."
Toro Rosso had Daniil Kvyat at the wheel, taking over from Pierre Gasly, a good chance for the Russian to continue to get to grips with the car before Monaco next week.
"I think today was a very productive and good day," said the Russian. "We completed a big amount of laps, all of which are useful for both myself and the team. Tonight we will analyse all the data we've gathered and we will already be able to use this valuable information in the next events, starting with Monaco.
"Barcelona is a very good track to test at and a lot of the work we got done today will hopefully work on the car as we expect. All in all, it was quite an important day for myself today, as being able to get time in the STR11 was essential, and I now feel much more confident and ready for Monaco."
"We put Daniil in the car today with the main targets to get him further familiarisation in the STR11 and to start to work the set-up around him," revealed Chief Race Engineer, Phil Charles. "We have made some progress on both fronts: firstly, we have completed a number of different types of runs today (short, long, medium and high fuel) and Daniil has certainly started to look at home in the STR11 in lots of different scenarios and with varying wind and track conditions.
"The only small disappointment was that our running was cut slightly short with around 50 minutes of the day remaining with a car problem. However, the real positive of the day is that there were a couple of good directions unearthed during the set-up work which we can hopefully make good use of at the upcoming races."
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