Max Verstappen continued his hot streak in the ongoing Formula One season at the Belgian Grand Prix. Barely a week after taking top podium finish at the Hungarian GP, the Dutch-Belgian racer gave Red Bull its 13th consecutive win, thus extending the most consecutive win record over McLaren (11 wins) further.
His teammate– Sergio Perez– added to Red Bull’s celebration by finishing at the second spot thus completing a one-two result. Verstappen and Perez, added 25 and 18 points to the team’s cause, Pole starter Charles Lecrec for Ferrari finished at the third post securing a total of 15 points.
Belgian Grand Prix: Verstappen closing in on 3rd title
The fourth and fifth spots were grabbed by F1 greats Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso racing for Mercedes and Aston Martin, respectively. Both racers added 13 and 10 points to their respective team’s total. Hamilton was accompanied by his teammate George Russel who finished sixth.
Lando Norris was unable to replicate his Hungarian GP performance as the McLaren racer could manage a seventh place finish. Aston Martin secured another double points finish as Lance Stroll backed up team mate Alonso in ninth, while Esteban Ocon and Yuki Tsunoda completed the points in eighth and 10th respectively via some late scrapping.
Results of the Belgian GP also meant Verstappen now holds a lead of 125 points over Perez in the drivers’ standings, as the Dutchman continues to push towards his third world championship title on the trott.
“I knew that we had a great car, it was just all about surviving Turn 1,” said Verstappen. “I could see it was all getting pretty tight. I’ve been in that position before myself, so I was just like, ‘I’m going to stay out of that’, so it worked out. I think we all made the right overtakes, moves, I just got a little bit stuck in the beginning in a DRS train. Once that [was] clear I could do my own pace.”
After a summer break of four weeks, action for the 2023 Formula One season will shift to Zandvoort for the Dutch Grand Prix, slated to take place from August 25-27.