Max Verstappen’s performance at the Belgian Grand Prix echoed that of Michael Schumacher’s in his prime manoeuvre.
Verstappen, who in the final race before F1’s summer break drove from 10th to the victory in the Hungarian Grand Prix, put on another dominating display at the Belgian Grand Prix.
In qualifying the day before, he had lapped everyone else by 0.65 seconds on a single run. In Q2 he had lapped his teammate who was on new tires with a set of used ones. His blazing qualifying run defeated his closest challenger, Carlos Sainz, by over 0.7 seconds.
On the race day, after starting from his penalized grid position in the back of the field. He took the lead of the Belgian Grand Prix on lap 18 of 44.
Finishing 17 seconds clear of his teammate Sergio Perez. He set the fastest race lap on a set of medium tires with 12 laps worth of fuel still remaining. Charles Leclerc’s low-fuel, new soft-tyred Ferrari could not match by more than 0.6 seconds.
On the other hand, Verstappen has significantly extended his commanding Drivers’ Championship lead to nearly 100 points. He is now 93 points ahead of teammate Perez.
Meanwhile, Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who finished sixth due to a five-second penalty, is 98 points behind Verstappen.
While Verstappen’s performance this Sunday was arguable one of his finest, it also echoed that of Michael Schumacher’s in his prime manoeuvre. Though his teammate couldn’t achieve anything close to it in the same car, Verstappen was in the form of his life.
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Max Verstappen is on the verge of breaking some exceptional records
Much to how Schumacher’s rivals in the early 2000s simply accepted the fact that he was going to win, it’s the same with Verstappen.
Germany’s Bild also compared Verstappen’s Belgian victory to that of Michael Schumacher in 1995, when he won from 16th on the grid.
“Verstappen needed very little time for his mad pursuit à la Michael Schumacher at Spa in 1995. At the Belgian Grand Prix, the Dutchman had to start from 14th on the grid and drove easily to victory.”
“Schumacher had once won here in the rain from sixteenth on the grid and crowned himself ‘rain god’. Verstappen is now (almost) managing to do the same.” The report stated.
The Dutch driver won two races in Belgium, becoming the first driver to do it since Kimi Raikkonen in 2005. And he might soon strip Hamilton, Schumacher, and Sebastian Vettel of some exceptional F1 records this year.
Ferrari legend Schumacher and Vettel jointly hold the record for the most race victories in a single season. In 2004, Schumacher won 13 out of 18 races, and Vettel repeated the feat with Red Bull in 2013, winning nine races in a row.
Verstappen still has nine races left in the season, the next one being his home race, the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort. And he has to only win four to match the two. If he manages five more wins, he will set a new record for the most wins in an F1 season.
Read also: Why Max Verstappen didn’t give tow to Sergio Perez for pole position boost
