Max Verstappen had to do it all over again after a red flag in the Mexican Grand Prix led to a second standing start, but a strong launch off the grid opened the way to the Red Bull driver achieving a record 16th win this season.
Of the three races he didn't win in 2023, two were claimed by his team mate Sergio Perez and the other by Ferrari's Carlos Sainz. Verstappen acknowledged that Red Bull was “experiencing an incredible season.”
“The car’s been unbelievable to drive in most places. When you then, as a team, work really well together you try not to make too many mistakes over the whole season, then you can achieve something like that.
"To win 16 races in a season is something I never thought would be possible, this season has been unbelievable," he commented. And he has the opportunity to add three more before the end of the season.
"I’m very proud of the achievement, because I think after last year when I won 15 I was like, well if I can ever try to replicate something like that I would be very happy.
"Now we are here with 16, so just very happy with everyone’s performance in the team for the whole year, basically not making a lot of mistakes.”
“17, 18, I don’t know,” Verstappen suggested when asked about his new target for race wins this year. "For now, my head is already on to the next race, let’s see what we can do in Brazil."
This week Verstappen had been denied a front row start to the race after being outpaced in qualifying by Sainz and Charles Leclerc. But such was the pace of the RB19 there was little doubt he would soon be back in charge.
It took about 800 metres before he took to the front in the first corner, although it still wasn't an entirely straightforward lights-to-flag victory from that point.
Verstappen surrendered the lead on lap 19 in order to make an early pit stop and switch from medium tyres to a set of the hard compound, while both Ferraris stayed out for ten laps longer before coming in.
“Today of course we had to start P3 but I think the pace of the car was very, very good,” he said in the post-race interviews in parc ferme.
"The start definitely made it a bit easier for me in the first stint," he acknowledged. "The tyres round here, it’s always very hard to manage but I think we had quite decent pace.
"Then of course we opted to box a bit earlier [than the others]," he said. "I was going to do a two-stop.
"It would have been quite interesting [to go] to the end to see how much faster I could have gone on the new set of hard tyres," he added. "I think the strategy was looking great.
"On those hard tyres at the end. I think we were very, very strong," he suggested, having finished the race almost 14s ahead of Lewis Hamilton in the Mercedes.
Verstappen was nonetheless annoyed when a safety car scrambled for Kevin Magnussen's huge accident on lap 31 was upgraded to a red flag just after he himself had made opportunistic use of the initial caution to pit.
That put him on a new set of hard tyres to see out the race - but the subsequent red flag meant everyone else also now had a 'free' opportunity to do likewise before the race resumed.
“Luckily [the hard compound] had only done one lap, so that helped," he said of his own tyres. “In the start normally the hard tyre is a bit more difficult to get off the line, but we actually had quite a decent start on that tyre as well.
"It was all about having a good start and try to keep the lead into turn 1, which we did, and after that it was just pace management to the end to keep the tyres alive, looking after the car, the brakes, everything.”
The stoppage ended up making little actual difference to the outcome, with Hamilton having to conserve his own tyres in the final stint to stretch the mediums all the way to the finish in P2 and stay ahead of the two Ferraris.
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said it had been "another amazing race by Max" and added that the world champion had played a "blinder" which made up for Sergio Perez crashing out at the first corner.
Verstappen had a front row seat for the incident but hadn't been worried about getting caught up in the fracas.
“It’s not the first time that I’ve been two-wide or three-wide into turn 1 here,” he pointed out. “But we all trust each other, and of course you are all on the limit braking into the corner.
"It was all fine I think," he concluded. "I saw on my outside something happened, but luckily on the inside we could stay out of trouble.”
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