Vettel backing for record-chaser Max
MAX VERSTAPPEN revealed he received a supportive text from an unlikely source, Sebastian Vettel, whose mark of nine straight wins he is odds-on favourite to equal in today’s Dutch Grand Prix.
Vettel was an avid accumulator of statistical milestones during his four world championship-clinching years at Red Bull between 2010 and 2013. Verstappen, on the other hand, doesn’t much care for the history books, yet he is breezily rewriting them.
His pole yesterday — his eighth of the season — was half-a-second faster than second-best Lando Norris, an impressive star himself for McLaren. Verstappen’s success raised a huge cheer among the partisans at Zandvoort after a stopstart, wet-to-dry qualifying session. George Russell. for Mercedes, was third fastest, with Alex Albon a impressive new team principal James Vowles.
Verstappen said: ‘After five wins in a row, Seb texted me, “Well done doing what you are doing at the moment. Keep it up”, and something like, “You are going to do the record”.
‘But I was like, “That is nine wins in a row, and something very impressive”. I never thought I would be able to get to eight.
‘If it is possible tomorrow, of course I’ll go for it. But it is not something in the back of my mind. I am not in this sport to try to break records. I am just here to win in the moment.’
It will spoil the party if Verstappen fluffs his lines in the 72-lap race front of a 105,000-strong crowd. Yesterday’s performance was as assured as it felt inevitable. ‘That last lap was very enjoyable,’ said Verstappen, who only had one crack at pole after several interruptions.
The season’s all so predictable, is it not? Mercedes boss Toto Wolff tried to be as diplomatic as possible as he delivered his verdict: ‘Unpredictability is what makes sport exciting and you want to look at the telly on Sunday and hope for a fight. That is not the case at the moment but that is because one team and one driver are doing a much better job than anybody else and we need to acknowledge that.’ Lewis Hamilton was eliminated in Q2 and will start 13th, a blow to his recently stated ambition to finish second in the drivers’ standings. He is currently fourth, 41 points behind Sergio Perez. Hamilton was perhaps impeded slightly by Yuki Tsunoda’s AlphaTauri, though the seven-time world champion blamed his and his car’s underperformance, rather than the Japanese driver, for his short-comings.
Williams’ Logan Sargeant crashed out on the entry of Turn Two, bringing out a red flag that delayed Q3 for 20 minutes as barrier repairs were carried out. The American is suffering an error-strewn season.
Minutes later, Charles Leclerc ran wide at Turn Nine and out of the action. The Monegasque makes too many mistakes to be a convincing No1 at Ferrari. He is quick but cannot keep it on the track reliably enough. In this instance, he carried too much speed into the corner, a right-hander which he failed to take. He will start from ninth.
The Leclerc-inspired red flag lasted six minutes, with 4min 5sec remaining on the clock — the window Verstappen had open to him to pull off his latest marvel.