Dutchman taking the championship to the max
Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium — In a Red Bull one-two with Sergio Perez at the Belgian Grand Prix on Sunday, Formula One championship leader Max Verstappen drove to a devastating eighth win in a row, one short of the record.
Red Bull became the first team in the sport’s 73-year history to win the first 12 races of a season, one more than McLaren did in 1988 with Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost.
Verstappen, who started sixth due to a five-place starting penalty, stretched his championship lead over Perez to 125 points — effectively five races — by crossing the finish line 22.3 seconds ahead of the Mexican.
“I knew we had a great car, it was just about surviving turn one,” said the double world champion, who has now won in Belgium three years in a row, including from 14th on the grid in 2022. “From then on, we made the correct overtakes and moves.”
Verstappen is on track for a third title with lots of races remaining; the only real question is where he will seal it.
Charles Leclerc, who started on pole for Ferrari, completed the podium with Lewis Hamilton fourth and securing fastest lap for Mercedes.
The one-two was Red Bull’s fifth of the season and so comfortable for Verstappen that his feisty radio chats with race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase provided much more of a talking point. They also showed his supreme confidence.
“I could also push on and we do another stop? A little bit of pit stop training,” Verstappen suggested with 14 laps remaining.
“No, not this time,” came the reply.
Lambiase had previously encouraged Verstappen to “use your head a bit more” and questioned if it was prudent for the driver to push so hard on the tyres on his out lap following a stop.
“Max, please follow my instruction and trust it,” Lambiase said to his driver on lap 12 when his word was called into question.
From second on the grid, Perez made an aggressive start, tucking in behind Leclerc around the tight, opening La Source corner and then bursting by on the Kemmel straight to take the lead.
Verstappen was already in fourth place, trailing Hamilton. On lap six at Les Combes, he passed the seven-time world champion, and three circuits later, he performed a similar move on Leclerc to start the hunt for Perez and a private Red Bull duel.
By lap 16, the Dutch driver was close on Perez’s tail and perfectly placed to burst past the Mexican on the Kemmel straight and break away. Perez was never given another opportunity after that.
McLaren’s Oscar Piastri was the race’s first casualty, the Australian rookie stopping by the side of the track after Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz squeezed him against the wall at La Source on the opening lap.
“I don’t know what he was doing. I was there and he just turned in like I didn’t exist,” said the Australian who finished second in Saturday’s sprint.
The impact damaged Sainz’s side pod, and the Spaniard slipped down the field before pitting to withdraw at the conclusion of lap 23, with the vehicle rolled into the garage.
