‘Max would have won from twentieth’ Helmut Marko lauds Max Verstappen’s completely dominating performance at Spa
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Max Verstappen and Helmut Marko
In all senses of the word, Max Verstappen completely dominated in Belgium. He started 14th, just ahead of Charles Leclerc, but the end results for the pair were quite different. Verstappen won the race by almost 18 seconds from his teammate, Sergio Perez, while Charles Leclerc had to settle for 6th after an early pit stop to remove a tear-off cost him valuable places.
The car’s performance was sublime, and so was Max Verstappen. Flawless, faultless, incredible, superb, and you will run out of superlatives to describe his performance on Sunday. The car and Verstappen had looked a class above the rest all weekend, and there was enough evidence of that before the race – especially when he went fastest in qualifying by more than 6 tenths from Carlos Sainz.
Max Verstappen has a 93-point lead in the championship, and it is highly unlikely anyone can pip him from this point on. The championship(s) at the top seem to be almost over in a sense, especially if Verstappen continues in the same vein. Helmut Marko was very impressed by his dominant performances in Belgium, as it exceeded the team’s goals for the weekend.
Also Read: “Mercedes was even further behind than usual,” Helmut Marko throws cheeky dig at Toto Wolff
Helmut Marko: ‘Jos Verstappen predicted Max would win’
As reported by GPBlog, Helmut Marko, following the race, displayed utter confidence and awe in Max’s ability and the car that weekend. The goal for Red Bull was to finish on the podium, as Verstappen had said, but he went above and beyond that, winning by almost 18 seconds, and scoring maximum points. He said: “I think Max would have won from the twentieth spot as well.”
Many drivers took grid penalties in Belgium, Verstappen included, but also Charles Leclerc, Mick Schumacher, Esteban Ocon, Lando Norris, Zhou Guanyu, Valtteri Bottas and later Yuki Tsunoda as well, who started from the pit lane. This gave Verstappen a great advantage over the others, as with his much better speed than the others, he started 14th instead of the intended back-of-the-grid.
Helmut Marko conceded that he didn’t predict Verstappen to win the race: “We knew for a while that we would change Max’s engine here and incur a penalty. So at first, we thought: we are going for the points. After qualifying you could see that the podium would be possible. Jos (Max’s father) already said to me that Max would win. I was not so optimistic, I must admit. But Jos was right.”
Next up is Zandvoort, Max Verstappen’s home race, where he won in dominant fashion before. On current form, and on current performance, he looks good to repeat that result again. If he wins in Zandvoort, it would mean 10 wins in 15 races, with 7 more left to go. Sebastian Vettel and Michael Schumacher’s record of 13 wins may be in some danger.
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Aniket Tripathi
(1002 Articles Published)