Teenager Verstappen shows up world’s best at Malaysian GP

At just 17, Max Verstappen proved he is a threat to Formula One’s best by qualifying a remarkable sixth for the Malaysian Grand Prix. The Toro Rosso driver’s impressive performance in wet conditions on Saturday represented the best qualifying session by a teenager since a 19-year-old Ricardo Rodriguez started second for the 1961 Italian Grand Prix. He took family bragging rights by matching the best qualifying performance of his father Jos, who qualified sixth in Belgium in 1994 and was trackside at the Sepang International Circuit to watch the precocious teen comfortably out-qualify the likes of world champions Fernando Alonso, Jenson Button and Kimi Raikkonen.

I was smiling when it started to rain, because that’s what I like. I’m Dutch so I’m used to driving in the wet, even though here it’s a completely different story.

Max Verstappen

He showed surprising levels of maturity not only in his performance but his preparation, as he scrutinized previous wet-weather qualifying sessions at Sepang in anticipation of the rain arriving on Saturday. Karting is about the highest level most race drivers his age can hope to get to, especially in the foreseeable future. Soon after Verstappen was hired by Toro Rosso, the rules were changed to make 18 the minimum age for competing in F1.

Max did an outstanding job considering that we’ve never faced these conditions with him in the past and he nailed it.

Toro Rosso’s technical director James Key.

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