As Formula 1 returned after the season break to Zandvoort for the Dutch GP, Max Verstappen won the race to equal Sebastian Vettel’s record of 9 consecutive wins. Coming into the Italian Grand Prix, he was offered the opportunity to win a 10th race to make Formula 1 history.
At the Italian Grand Prix, Carlos Sainz managed to qualify on pole position ahead of Max Verstappen. Ferrari seemed to be on pace this weekend, which meant that winning was not going to be an easy feat for the reigning world champion. Recently, Verstappen revealed the key moment in his record-breaking win on Sunday.
Verstappen reveals key moment in record-breaking win
Verstappen, in his charging Red Bull, was all over the back of pole-sitter Carlos Sainz on Sunday, until his pressure eventually forced the Spaniard into an error on lap 15, to take the lead of the race. From then on, he remained in the lead until the end of the race, excluding the pit-stop shuffling of the grid.
In an interview with BBC, Verstappen revealed the key moments that allowed him to win at Monza, saying, “Yeah I mean they were just really quick on the straight. I think they had good top speed all weekend, our rear wing was a bit trimmed down so our DRS effect was less this weekend, and that made it a little bit harder to get a good run into turn one.”
He continued, “I just had to stay really patient and tried to force them into a mistake by braking really late each time, and one time when Sainz’s tyres were running out, he did lock up a little bit and I had a really good run out of turn two.”
Max Verstappen overcomes Ferrari challenge to secure 10th straight win
Unlike the wins he had before the season break, the last two wins at Netherlands and Monza were not smooth sailing for Verstappen. In fact, the first 14 laps that Sainz led at the Italian GP were the most led by a non-Red Bull driver overall this season!
Nevertheless, Max drover brilliantly to snatch the lead from Sainz after forcing him into an error on Turn 1. Thus, he went on to break the F1 record for most consecutive wins, a perfect 10/10 race!
On this, he said “I’m very happy with [the record] it’s something that you don’t even think about trying to achieve because it’s very unlikely that those kind of things happen. But yeah very proud that it happened and in general very proud of what the team has done also today again, the whole year has been pretty incredible.”
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