Max Verstappen: « I knew we had a good car »

Even without starting from pole position, victory couldn’t escape Max Verstappen. Starting 6th due to a grid penalty for changing gearboxes, the Dutchman displayed fully justified confidence as he stepped out of his car at the end of qualifying. Last year, he brilliantly won the race starting from 14th. Starting from the 6th position shouldn’t pose too much difficulty.

And indeed, Max Verstappen once again fully mastered his subject. His caution at the start was praised while Carlos Sainz’s hastiness condemned his race and that of Oscar Piastri right after the first corner. Overtaking the McLaren and Ferrari, the Red Bull driver immediately found himself in fourth position. It took him a little time to overtake Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes, but his overtake was a matter of time, not capability. On the podium by the 6th lap, the Dutchman then got rid of Charles Leclerc on the 9th lap. These two overtakes were done with disconcerting ease. While these two drivers had been tough rivals of the current world champion, in 2021 and 2022 respectively, the RB19 has isolated Verstappen at the top of Formula 1. Now, no driver on the grid seems to be able to bring him down.

Once his pit stop was done, Max Verstappen completed a qualifying lap to close in on his teammate and overtake him on the 17th lap. Alone in the lead, Verstappen could engage in his favorite activity: widening the gap with his closest competitor every lap. As a result, he finished the Belgian Grand Prix with a 22-second advantage over his teammate.

« This is the first time I’ve won from 6th place. I knew we had a good car, so the most important thing was to get through the first corner without any issues. The corner is very tight, so I preferred to hang back and it turned out to be a good decision. From there, I started making the right moves to overtake the cars in front of me. I was a bit stuck in a DRS train at the start, but I managed to break free and set my own pace. »

While the rain could have shuffled the cards of this Grand Prix, as was the case for the Sprint race, it never intensified and the strategy was not changed for the leaders. However, it almost caused Verstappen’s first retirement of the season. It was halfway through the race, at the top of Raidillon, that his race could have ended prematurely. Losing the rear of his car slightly, he managed to finish the race, but not without a reminder that his invincibility is not foolproof.

« Eau Rouge is the worst turn to have a scare. It was tricky on the laps where it was raining because we could see that there was rain, but it was hard to gauge how much. So, I had a little slide, but luckily it was more scary than anything else », he declared.

The sea is calm for Max Verstappen at the moment. Barring a catastrophe in the second half of the season, he should sail smoothly and win his third title before the last race of the season. He currently has a 125-point lead over Sergio Pérez in the standings.