Max Verstappen sets record for most consecutive wins

Max Verstappen wins the Italian Grand Prix. Thus, the Dutchman extended his winning streak to ten races. This is an achievement that even the most titled racers in history, such as seven-time world champions Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton, have not submitted to. Second was Verstappen’s Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez. The third is Carlos Sainz from Ferrari. While maintaining such a victorious pace, Verstappen can issue his third title in the second half of October.

The Italian Grand Prix fell a bit short of the season’s most common scenario of Max Verstappen winning the qualifying and then, mostly on autopilot, the race. The first to start was Carlos Sainz, who then seemed to overly reassure the Italian fans, saying that Ferrari is quite capable of competing with Red Bull on the home track. The circuit in Monza is really sharpened for the fastest cars, and Ferrari has everything in order with the “maximum speed”. But without exception, experts noted that one super-fast lap in qualifying does not mean much that Red Bull will still be faster at a distance simply because it does not “eat” rubber so violently.

It is clear that Italian fans would not like to believe in this obvious, in general, prediction. But it was necessary, however, not immediately. Sainz had a great start and seemed to even lock Verstappen in second place. The Dutchman tried to look for opportunities to attack, literally hung on the tail of the Spaniard, but he fought back very competently. However, when Verstappen radioed his team that he saw that the rubber of the rear wheels was “floating” on Sainz’s car, it became clear that the outcome of the race was almost a foregone conclusion. Verstappen, after waiting a little longer for the opponent’s wheels to reach the condition, went around him, drove to a safe distance, after which he turned on the already mentioned autopilot mode, soon setting a record of ten victories in a row. Until now, he shared the achievement with Sebastian Vettel (four-time world champion set it in 2013, when he also played for Red Bull).

Verstappen’s lead, however, did not mean that the intrigue in the race had died. Yes, there was no fight for victory in it, but Sainz, another Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc and Red Bull number two Sergio Perez grappled for the two remaining positions on the podium. It is customary to scold the latter for not meeting the level of the championship team (an ambiguous claim, given that if Verstappen were crossed out, it would be Peres who would lead the championship with a margin of fifty points from the closest pursuer), but in Italy he was not bad at all. He turned his fifth place at the start into second at the finish line. And all this in an extremely tough confrontation with Leclerc and Sainz, whom Perez overtook not thanks to some tricky pit stop, but honestly, on the track. By the way, the battle, which had to be interrupted by a shout from the boxes, pleased both Sainz and Leclerc. Both wanted to get on the podium at the home Grand Prix and got so carried away that they almost brought the matter to an accident. Sainz, not without the help of the team that held Leclerc, fought back and became the third.

After the race at Monza, Verstappen’s lead over Perez reached 145 points. It’s time to figure out when the Dutchman will issue a third title. There are still eight races left until the end of the championship (the last one will take place on November 26 in Abu Dhabi), in which 232 points are at stake. While maintaining the current victorious pace, Verstappen may be out of reach for the pursuers as early as October. Perhaps already at the Qatar Grand Prix (October 8) or, more likely, at the US Grand Prix (October 22).

Alexander Petrov