Photo Credit: Red Bull Content Pool
It was another standard Sunday drive for Max Verstappen at the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps. The Dutchman’s win in Belgium now is his eight consecutive victory and Red Bull’s 13th in a row.
Being relegated 5 places to P6 from his pole position due to a gearbox change, Verstappen immediately gained from the start, passing the duelling Sainz and Piastri to slot himself into P4.
Verstappen patiently followed Hamilton for a few laps until lap 6 when he closed up to the Mercedes with the aid of DRS along the Kemmel Straight and down the inside of Les Combes to slot into P3.
Three laps later and it was a Red Bull 1-2 with Verstappen going around the outside of Leclerc into Les Combes. With sights then set on his Mexican teammate, Verstappen seemed to have so much more purchase and grip from his Pirelli tyres on the exit of La Source and breezed passed Sergio Perez down the Kemmel Straight to take the lead.
From then on it was a formality for the double World Champion and current championship leader. Be it for a few irksome exchanges on the radio with his race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase, it was plain sailing for the 25-year-old Dutchman, eventually finishing a huge 22 seconds ahead of Perez and a further 12 seconds from Leclerc in P3.
Speaking in Parc Fermé after the race, Verstappen spoke how it was important to stay out of trouble in turn 1.
“It’s a new spot winning from P6. I knew that we had a great car and it was just about surviving Turn One. I could see it getting really tight so I was just going to stay out of that and it worked out.”
“From there onwards we made the right overtakes and moves. I got a bit stuck in a DRS train at the start but once that cleared I could do my own pace. Again, really enjoyable.”
After the radio battle between Verstappen and engineer Lambiase, race winner Verstappen said he slowed down to preserve his tyres.
“I did slow down after GP’s radio message. We look at the numbers, we look at the wear of the tyre and this track is super hard on the tyre so you don’t want to do any unnecessary things and that’s what we did until the end.”
Finally, Verstappen did have a moment in Eau Rouge during the tricky damp track conditions that weren’t ready for inters. The Dutchman spoke about how he was lucky in this occasion.
“Eau Rouge is the worst corner to have a moment. It was tricky in those laps where it was raining because you could see it was raining but no how much so I had a little sideways moment, luckily nothing happened but it’s certainly not a corner you want it to happen.”
