Max Verstappen was in unbelievable form in today's Belgium Grand Prix, operating on a different level from everyone else out on track - and giving his race engineer palpitations on the way.
Verstappen was quickest in qualifying on Friday by more than eight tenths, but started today's race from sixth on the grid as a result of a penalty for tacking an extra gearbox over the permitted allocation.
That gave him a ringside seat into the first corner of the race as Oscar Piastri and Carlos Sainz made contact at La Source, inflicting sufficient damage to force both cars out of the race.
Verstappen was alert to the danger and ensured that he didn't get caught up in the accident, or get taken out by anyone else coming into the hairpin.
"It was just all about surviving turn 1," he told Sky Sports F1's Martin Brundle in parc ferme afterward. "I could see it was all getting pretty tight. I’ve been in that position before myself.
“I knew that we had a great car," he continued. "So I was just like, 'I’m going to stay out of that'". It meant he spent the opening laps behind Lewis Hamilton until the opportunity presented itself to make the pass on lap 6 down the Kemmel Straight.
"It worked out. I think we all made the right overtakes and moves. I just got a little bit stuck in the beginning in a DRS train, but once that cleared I could do my own pace."
He eventually took the lead of the race from his team mate Sergio Perez on lap 17 and led the rest of the race, finishing with a 22s lead. Unsurprisingly, he said that the day had been "really enjoyable"
The one scare was when the rain started to fall and Verstappen nearly went into a spin when he was caught out by the compression at Eau Rouge. “Probably the worst corner to have a moment!” he joked.
“I had a little sideways moment. Luckily nothing happened, but it’s definitely a corner you don’t want it to happen," he explained. “It was tricky in those laps when it was raining. You could see that it was raining but not that much."
There also sounded to be some friction between verstappen and his race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase who sounded increasingly annoyed with his driver's cavalier attitude at points.
“You used a lot of tyre on the out-lap, Max. Not sure that was sensible," he said over the team radio after a pit stop. "I'd ask you to use your head a bit more.” But Verstappen denied ignoring the instructions.
“I did slow down!" he said. "Of course, we all look at the numbers, we look at the wear of the tyre ... This track is super hard on the tyres. You don’t want to do super unnecessary things, so that’s what we did until the end.”
Verstappen heads into the summer break sixth a 125 point lead in the drivers championship. Red Bull have now taken 12 consecutive wins, a records for a single season.
The reigning world champion hasn't been beaten in either a Grand Prix or Sprint race since since the Azerbaijan GP in Baku on April 30. And frankly, on current form, it's hard to see him losing out in the remaining ten races of 2023.
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