Round 11: Hungary
F1i's driver of the weekend: Max Verstappen (Red Bull) - 9.5/10
Verstappen dispensed with pole sitter Lewis Hamilton at the first corner to cruise to another win, and it was another strong day for McLaren (and a 9.0 for Norris) but a bad one for Alpine with both Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly taken out at the start by an accident triggered by the slow-starting Alfa Romeo of Zhou Guanyu. Daniel Ricciardo also incurred damage on his F1 return after AlphaTauri dropped Nyck de Vries.
"Although the race itself couldn't have been easier for Verstappen, the build-up over the rest of the weekend didn't go quite as smoothly," we commented. "He and his team mate Sergio Perez struggled on Friday for grip, the latest sidepod upgrades to the RB19 proving a bit of a handful to get optimised given the lack of running time imposed by the lack of tyres under the Alternative Tyre Allocation system in play in Hungary.
"Even on Saturday, there was still something not quite all there as Lewis Hamilton beat both Red Bulls in final practice. Even so, it was still a surprise when Verstappen narrowly failed to take his customary pole in the afternoon qualifying, missing out by three thousandths to Hamilton. The last time the team had failed to take pole was in Azerbaijan in April - could it possibly be that the Red Bull dominance was beginning to teeter?
"Not if the race was anything to go by. Whatever problems he had leading into Sunday, Verstappen's Grand Prix was perfection itself as he bullied his way past Hamilton at the first corner and left the affronted Mercedes being picked over by a brace of eager McLaren jackals. Verstappen marched away with it from there, seemingly not even having to put any effort into it as he lapped backmarker after backmarker.
"At one point his race engineer gave him a call over the radio just to see if the driver was still awake. To be honest, it probably wouldn't have mattered either way - Verstappen really could have won this one in his sleep."
Round 12: Belgium
F1i's driver of the weekend: Max Verstappen (Red Bull) - 9.5/10
Red Bull became the first team in F1 history to win 12 races in a row in the same season with Max Verstappen fully in charge at a shower-hit Spa. Leclerc started from pole but had no chance of staying ahead of the two rampant Bulls although he had more success fending off Lewis Hamilton to finish on the podium. He was on pole in both the sprint and the race, and won both, and in the final ratings for the weekend as a whole his score of 9.5 was well ahead of Oscar Piastri, Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc who tied on 8.5.
"Max Verstappen's performance this weekend was extraordinary on many levels," we were forced to admit in the F1i Ratings the following day. "He's performing as if he's on a different planet at the moment. Not even Lewis Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel or Michael Schumacher had this sort of total domination over the rest of the field in their respective golden eras, including compared to their own team mates in the same hardware.
"Verstappen was eight tenths quicker than anyone else in qualifying, and although he didn't start on pole (due to a penalty for an extra gearbox) no one doubted that it would not be very long before he took the lead on Sunday. In fact many thought it would be much sooner than lap 12.
"A final winning margin of 22s over his Red Bull team mate Sergio Perez is simply extraordinary in the circumstances, but it was fun to see him denied the bonus point for fastest lap that he had been agitating for over much of the race, to the audible annoyance of his race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase over the team radio after the pair had also exchanged sharp words in qualifying on Friday."
The biggest surprise had come the previous day: "Verstappen had taken pole and victory in Saturday's sprint side hustle but he will have been surprised to have been pushed as hard as he was by a rookie in a McLaren with Oscar Piastri taking P2. Maybe the bright young future stars F1 are coming into focus rather quicker than the reigning world champion would like?"
