Belgian GP: Max Verstappen Bags 8th Straight Win Despite 5 Penalty

Max Verstappen said, “Fortunately nothing happened,” after he won his eighth straight Formula One Grand Prix at Spa. After starting the race in sixth place and working his way up the grid, Max Verstappen eventually claimed victory in the Belgian Grand Prix. The current champion has now won eight times in a row in Formula 1 this year.

This is the first time he has finished sixth in this event, although it wasn’t a great surprise because he finished fourteenth here in 2022.

When Martin Brundle questioned him about if he could win from wherever during their interview at Parc Ferme, Verstappen responded: “It’s a new spot, that’s for sure. P6. Yeah, I mean I knew that we had a great car, was just about surviving turn one? They were, it was all getting really tight. I’ve been in that position before… Like I’m just gonna stay out of that and it worked out.”

After winning the Sprint yesterday, Max Verstappen had an incredible race. He hoped to attempt the race’s best lap as well, but Lewis Hamilton took the lead after making a pit stop on lap 43.

The race might have gone quite differently, especially when it began to rain around Eau Rouge and the drivers weren’t sure when it was appropriate to pit. The intercoms weren’t turned on, though.

However, Max Verstappen experienced a brief moment of going up on the bend and nearly lost control of his vehicle before recovering it. He discussed it with Brundle and expressed his gratitude that nothing negative occurred.

Max Verstappen admits to slowing down during the race, “The worst corner to have a moment, but it was tricky in those laps. So it was raining because you could see that it was raining, but not how much exactly. And I had a little sideways rolling. Luckily, nothing happened.” But it’s definitely a corner where you don’t want it to happen.”

With a lead of more than 10 seconds over teammate Sergio Perez, the double world champion wasn’t in danger of dropping out of first place. Consequently, he didn’t need to exert much force.

The Circuit in Spa-Francorchamps notoriously tough on tyres, and because it had rained all weekend, the teams lacked a lot of information on dry running.

However, it was clear that Max Verstappen was at ease and wasn’t trying any harder. Gianpiero Lambiase, also known as GP, his race engineer, advised him not to push in order to preserve the tyres. However, it didn’t appear that he had slowed down at all. But he acknowledged that he had, saying:

“I did slow down. Of course, you know, we all look at the numbers. We look at the wear of the tire. And, you know, this track is super hard on the tires. So you don’t want to do any unnecessary things. That’s what we did till the end.”

Verstappen has now won eight straight races this season, closing up on the record established by Sebastian Vettel, a former Red Bull driver. The latter finished the 2013 season with nine straight victories.

In the following race, which will be his home race in the Netherlands after the summer break, Verstappen has a very good chance of breaking or tying this record.