Max Verstappen sets yet another remarkable F1 record after Lewis Hamilton claim

Max Verstappen is on course to complete F1’s most dominant Championship win, with the Dutchman dropping just 23 points in 2023’s 13 races, despite Lewis Hamilton believing his car would be as fast as the Red Bull going into the weekend. The two-time world champion saw the chequered flag for the 11th time in 2023 at his home Grand Prix at Zandvoort.

It also happened to be his 9th race win in a row, matching Sebastian Vettel’s F1 record, which he can beat at Monza next week. Verstappen dropped 14 points with second-place finishes behind Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez in Saudi Arabia and Azerbaijan, with the team yet to lose a race this season.

The three-peat-chasing world champion, 25, also missed out on a further seven points dished out for the fastest lap set during a race. Verstappen also dropped two points in the Baku sprint race, meaning he has hoovered up an astonishing 93.6 percent of the points (339) available to him. The missing 23 points are less than that of what Verstappen could claim with a victory and fastest lap (26).

Mercedes star Hamilton, 38, claimed that the team had the pace to challenge Verstappen’s dominance at Zandvoort, but says poor strategy is what saw him finish 6th and teammate George Russell 17th. “Today I had the pace, in those conditions if we made the right [strategy] calls, I could have challenged the top two,” he told Sky Sports.

“We would have challenged Max, particularly when we got to the dry pace-wise we weren’t terribly far off. I’m not saying we would have beat them, but I think we would have been happy. It’s still nice if you think that way.”

Meanwhile, Red Bull’s team principal, Christian Horner, has described Verstappen, who has a 138-point lead over second-place Perez, as “simply untouchable”. Horner says no other driver on the current grid could achieve what Verstappen has – not even former world champions Hamilton and Fernando Alonso.

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“A lot would have cracked under that pressure and he kept his composure and delivered as he’s done so many times,” he said. “I think Max is in a period of his career where he’s just simply untouchable and I don’t think there’s any driver on the grid that would be able to achieve what he’s been doing in that car. What we are witnessing at the moment is a driver that is generational…he’s been in incredible form for about the last three years now.”

Aston Martin’s Alonso, who finished second, clinching his seventh podium of the season, said on Verstappen: “It is underestimated sometimes what Max is achieving. I think you need to enter in a mood, in a state that you are connected with a car.”

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