Verstappen helps Red Bull set a new record

The old record of 11 consecutive race wins was set by the British team McLaren, with the legendary duo Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna, set in the 1988 season. Red Bull also raised their unbeaten record with 13 races, counting. the whole Abu Dhabi leg at the end of the 2022 season.

For Verstappen personally, the victory on the Spa-Francorchamps racetrack on July 30 was the eighth consecutive race. If he continues to finish first at home Zandvoort at the Dutch Grand Prix on August 27, this Dutch driver will catch up with the 10-year record set by Sebastian Vettel in the 2013 season.

Verstappen also caught up with another record of senior legend Fernando Alonso for the most fights from the most starting positions, with 9 positions. Before starting sixth and finishing first at Spa-Francorchamps, the Dutch driver won when he started in first, second, third, fourth, seven, nine, 10 and 14 places.

First place in the Belgian Grand Prix, Verstappen also widened the gap on the personal scoreboard to 125 points, because teammate Sergio Perez tried his best but could only finish second. "Definitely a great achievement, because I only started sixth," the F1 champion said after finishing. "I understood I had a great car that helped me get through Turn 1. From then on, things went very smoothly. I only had a few hiccups until I started the DRS zone. But after overcoming that difficulty, it was really interesting."

Despite the best performance in the qualifying round, Verstappen was dropped five places from the start because of the new transmission. In the first 10 cars, Charles Leclerc, Perez, Lewis Hamilton, Carlos Sainz and Verstappen chose soft tires, while Oscar Piastri, Lando Norris, George Russell, Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll used medium tires.

When the race started, dark clouds still appeared but there was no sign of rain and the track was completely dry. Leclerc initially tried to keep the pole advantage when the convoy started, despite pressure from Perez and Hamilton at the first corner of La Source. However, the Ferrari driver was only able to withstand a few more seconds.

Close behind Leclerc, Perez easily overtook the Monaco driver on the Kemmel straight stretch. Piastri, after sublimating at the Sprint stage on July 29, soon had to give up because the MCL60 hit a wall on Turn 1 when facing Carlos Sainz. At the end of the first round, Perez created a distance of more than 1 second compared to Leclerc. Right behind the duo are Hamilton and Verstappen, who benefited from Piastri's collision with Sainz.

Although he soon climbed two steps in the first round, it was not until the sixth round that Verstappen defeated Hamilton. By lap 9, Red Bull's main driver continued to overtake Leclerc. Both overtakes came from the RB19's outstanding speed when using the DRS spoiler near the corner of Les Combes, at the end of the Kemmel stretch. Both opponents could not resist the superior power of the RB19.

At this time, Perez was still leading with a gap of nearly 3 seconds until he entered the pit to change the tire for the first time in round 13. Verstappen was called to change the tire in the next round. Both cars switched to using medium tires. From this moment, the Dutch driver began to approach and fiercely attack his teammate, in order to soon take the first place.

By the 17th round, thanks to the advantage of using the DRS wing, Verstappen easily defeated Perez when he passed at the beginning of the Kemmel straight line. At the end of this 17th lap, the gap between the Red Bull duo was widened to 1.6 seconds. Perez no longer had the opportunity to use DRS to counterattack.

Continuously setting the fastest-lap since switching to new tires, Verstappen quickly widened the gap. By lap 20, the distance was approximately 4 seconds. A mid-race shower gave the teams headaches, but in the end none of the cars switched to rain-specific tires. However, raindrops falling on the track caused Verstappen to crash. His RB19 wobbled while going through the high-speed bend of Eau Rouge. With talent and composure, though, Verstappen made it through the difficult moment.

Completing 44 laps at Spa-Francorchamps with a time of 1 hour 22 minutes 30,450 seconds, Verstappen has a third consecutive victory at the Belgian Grand Prix and looks to the prospect of winning all remaining races, to confirm determine the dominant position in the current F1 racing village.

Verstappen's superiority is natural for other racing teams, but it is a humiliation for Perez - who is far behind his teammates compared to the distance that the Mexican driver creates with the rest of the drivers. Leclerc ran third, and trailed Perez very well, always under 10 seconds from the Red Bull driver's second place and still creating a safe distance from Hamilton running fourth.

"We had a pretty active race," Leclerc said. "Of course the race just went well for me personally, but seeing the superiority of Red Bull, it's clear that we still have a lot of work to do."