F1, Belgian Grand Prix 2023 | Verstappen makes it eight races in a row

Formula One championship leader Max Verstappen roared to a crushing eighth win in a row, one short of the all-time record, in a Red Bull one-two with Sergio Perez at the Belgian Grand Prix on Sunday.

Red Bull’s 13th consecutive victory made the team the first in the sport’s 73-year history to win the opening 12 races of a season, one more than McLaren managed in 1988 with Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost.

Verstappen, who started sixth after a five-place grid penalty, extended his championship lead over Perez to 125 points — effectively five races — after taking the chequered flag 22.3 seconds ahead of the Mexican.

“I knew we had a great car, it was just about surviving turn one,” said the double world champion, who has now won in Belgium for the last three years in a row including from 14th on the grid last year.

“From there onwards we made the right overtakes and moves.”

He is heading for a third title with plenty of races to spare, the only real doubt being where he might seal it.

Charles Leclerc, who started on pole for Ferrari, completed the podium with Lewis Hamilton fourth and securing fastest lap for Mercedes.

The one-two was Red Bull’s fifth of the season and so comfortable for Verstappen that his feisty radio chats with race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase provided much more of a talking point.

They also showed his supreme confidence.

“I could also push on and we do another stop? A little bit of pit stop training,” Verstappen suggested with 14 laps remaining.

“No, not this time,” came the reply.

Lambiase had earlier told Verstappen sharply to “use your head a bit more” and questioned whether it had been sensible for the driver to push so hard on the tyres on his out lap after a stop.

“Max, please follow my instruction and trust it,” Lambiase told his driver as early as lap 12 after his word had been questioned.

Aggressive start

Perez made an aggressive start from second on the grid, tucking in behind Leclerc through the tight, opening La Source corner and then blasting past on the Kemmel straight to seize the lead.

Verstappen was already up to fourth and chasing Hamilton.

He passed the seven-times world champion on lap six at Les Combes and pulled off a similar move on Leclerc three laps later at the same place to start the chase of Perez and a private Red Bull battle.

By lap 16, after both had pitted with Verstappen’s stop half a second faster, the Dutch driver was right on Perez’s tail and perfectly placed to blow past the Mexican on the Kemmel straight and pull away.

Perez never got another chance after that.

McLaren’s Oscar Piastri was the race’s first casualty, the Australian rookie stopping by the side of the track after Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz squeezed him against the wall at La Source on the opening lap.

“I don’t know what he was doing. I was there and he just turned in like I didn’t exist,” said the Australian rookie who finished second in Saturday’s sprint.

Sainz’s sidepod was holed in the contact and the Spaniard dropped down the field before pitting to retire at the end of lap 23, with the car wheeled into the garage.

In the post-race show, Sergio Perez said he planned to stay on the Formula One podium for the rest of the year after finishing runner-up to dominant Red Bull team mate Max Verstappen in Sunday’s Belgian Grand Prix.

The second place was the Mexican’s best result since Miami in May, when he was also second, and ended a poor run of results.

Perez is second overall in the championship but now a massive 125 points behind Verstappen — who has won the last eight — after 12 of 22 races.

“I really look forward to not leaving the podium any more from now until the end of the year. It’s been a bit of a rough patch, but I think we overcome and today we managed to score great points for the team,” he said.

The podium was Perez’s seventh of a campaign that has also brought him two wins.

While it came as a relief, there was no escaping also the fact that he had started on the front row, taking the lead on the opening lap, while Verstappen lined up sixth on the grid but still won by 22.3 seconds.

The next race is Verstappen’s home Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort, which the double world champion has won for the last two years in front of his adoring fans.

“I really need the summer break. It’s been really intense the last few races, so I look forward to it and come back very strong for Zandvoort,” said Perez.

“It gives us a bit of time to go deep on our analysis, see what we can improve for the next 10 races and basically keep the momentum going for the end of the season.”

Perez also explained a cryptic comment to team boss Christian Horner after qualifying, when the Mexican said over the radio “You’ll talk to me now” without explaining the significance.

“It was a joke,” he said.

“He came before qualifying and said ‘If you’re not in the top three, I will not talk to you the rest of the weekend’. So he was talking to me the rest of the weekend.” 

‘It’s broken again’

Red Bull suffered a second trophy malfunction in a week on Sunday after the one handed to the winning constructor at the Belgian Grand Prix was broken after a celebratory team photograph.

The race marked Red Bull’s record 12th win in 12 races this season, making them the first Formula One team to achieve such a run in a single year.

In Hungary last Sunday the porcelain race winner’s trophy handed to Max Verstappen toppled off the podium and smashed after McLaren’s Lando Norris popped his champagne by bashing the bottle on the ground.

“It’s broken again, the trophy’s broken again,” Verstappen, who has now won eight in a row and leads the championship by 125 points, shouted in footage posted by Red Bull on Instagram.

Video showed team members rushing towards the camera as others sprayed cans of Red Bull. As they ran, a pit board toppled onto the trophy placed in front of it.

“Ready for summer-BREAK,” the team commented, with the video showing team members trying to reassemble it. “Don’t worry we could rebuild this one and it’s on its way to Milton Keynes.”

Formula One is starting its August break following the race at Spa-Francorchamps.