Is Max Verstappen unstoppable this season?
08.06.2025 00:35
George Russell was sixth for Mercedes, with Lando Norris (McLaren), Esteban Ocon (Alpine), Lance Stroll (Aston Martin), and Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri) completing the top 10. Leclerc started on pole ahead of Perez, with Hamilton and Ferrari's Carlos Sainz Jr. behind them. McLaren rookie Oscar Piastri was on the next row alongside Verstappen — who was fastest in Friday's qualifying but took a five-place grid penalty for a gearbox change and had to avoid early traffic.
Last year Verstappen won from 14th, and once he overtook Perez on Lap 17 of 44 his 45th career win was seemingly inevitable.
Conditions were dry for the race start, in stark contrast to the two previous days, which were impacted by heavy rain at the 7-kilometer (4.3-mile) Spa-Francorchamps circuit.
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“It’s fine. We know each other very well and we have a very good relationship,” he said. “I think it’s really important."
"The guys think this track is not too different to Budapest and our car was good in Budapest. Even last year when the car was not great in Zandvoort, we were closer to the front.
Verstappen has dominated since F1's regulations were overhauled at the start of last season, with his comfortable victory at the concluding round before the break in Belgium his 10th from 12 so far and his 19th from his last 23 outings. He is a staggering 125 points clear in the standings as he closes in on a hat-trick of titles. Ferrari's Charles Leclerc predicted on Thursday that it would be "very, very difficult" to catch Verstappen and Red Bull before the sport's next major rule change in 2026.
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“Of course the race was good on my side, a shame for Carlos as we had good pace,” Leclerc said. "When you look at the Red Bulls we still have a lot of work to do ... This was the best we could achieve today, no doubt.”
When he eventually passed, there was the collective feeling in my household that the race, in terms of who was going to pass the chequered flag first, was over. I’m sure that was replicated in many, many other households around the globe.Verstappen being the dominant force in F1 is not a major issue existentially for the sport. Verstappen being an entirely unstoppable force is.
"We are working on the steep gradient to develop our car and close the gap. Whether or not we can, next year will be the proof."
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Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton fears there is a "high chance" that Red Bull rival Max Verstappen will win all 10 remaining races this season - and believes the Dutchman's crushing dominance could last until 2026. Following a four-week summer shutdown, Formula One fires up this weekend at Verstappen's home round in the Netherlands.
“It’s been a bit of a rough patch," the 33-year-old Mexican said. "I really need this summer break, it’s been really intense. I’ll come back really strong for Zandvoort.”
And Hamilton continued: "The fact is Red Bull are ahead and they have most likely started development on next year's car a month before anybody else. It is very, very possible that Charles could be right.
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When it was introduced, DRS was supposed to increase the excitement on track with the promise of more overtaking. In many ways, and certainly in terms of raw numbers, that has worked – but overtakes which rely on the pace of the car, driver, and sheer racecraft are just far more impressive. Alex Albon produced what I’d term a 'proper overtake' on Oscar Piastri for P6 on lap two before DRS was enabled. It was a stunning move. It would have been far more impressive for Verstappen, even as the fastest driver in the fastest car, to have had to produce such a move to keep his streak going.
Leclerc, who won his first F1 race here in 2019, made a solid start but Perez’s extra pace soon put him in front.
"There is a high chance that he (Verstappen) will win every race," said Hamilton, 38. "He hasn't made any mistakes and the team hasn't made many this year. They might win everything.
With some rain forecast, Verstappen boxed on the next lap and came out about 2 seconds behind Perez. Just minutes later he cruised past Perez and, as so often this season, the rest was just about control. Perez, meanwhile, pledged to stay on the podium for the rest of the season.
"George (Russell) finished second and at one point I was hunting down the lead so I am hoping we are closer or in shooting range of a podium this weekend.
That’s what David Croft said as Max Verstappen closed in on Carlos Sainz to make the inevitable passing move on his way to making Formula 1 history.
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"We have the belief we will get there. And my goal is to try and keep that second place in the constructors' championship and hunt down second in the drivers' standings."
“Really enjoyable to drive once I got in the lead,” Verstappen said. “It was again a great race.“
Hamilton is fourth in the standings, 41 points adrift of Verstappen's Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez who occupies the runner-up spot, while Mercedes are second in the team standings, an eye-watering 256 points behind Red Bull, but 51 points clear of Ferrari.
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Worse than that, even when anyone can gain track position via grid penalty or astonishing qualifying lap, their ability to defend over a long enough period to lock him out from taking victory is entirely negated by the artificiality of DRS. There are few better tracks than Monza for diluting the effects of DRS (the cars run such skinny wings that the drag is already low and upon opening it up you don't really gain that much compared to other circuits), but Sainz could only do so much. The Spaniard produced some marvellous defensive driving and fought with all his might to keep the position, but a single lock-up was enough for Verstappen – with the extra push of DRS to propel him – to move past him and quickly drive off into the distance.
The resistance lasted 15 laps and it was the only 15 laps of this Formula 1 season where it didn’t all feel like a foregone conclusion. What the Dutchman is doing is absolutely remarkable, but F1 will suffer from the processional nature of his success this season. For now, the huge audience the sport has gained – particularly in the USA and primarily through the phenomenal success of Drive to Survive – are holding just about steady, but that will not remain the case ad infinitum. The growth, almost exponential at one point, has ground to a halt. Of course, F1 has had periods in the past where one driver and team have dominated, but rarely has it felt like the sense of competition for the top spot on the podium is so moot in any given race.
Hamilton's £40 million-a-year contract expires at the end of the season and the Briton said on Thursday that were there was no update on his next deal, despite team principal Toto Wolff claiming - ahead of the Canadian Grand Prix on June 18 - that his star driver's future would be resolved in "days rather than weeks".
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Red Bull extended its record to 13 straight wins, including the final race of last season. Hamilton came in on the penultimate lap for a tire change and the move paid off as he took the bonus point for fastest lap from Verstappen — a very minor blip for the dominant Dutchman. It was yet another stellar weekend for Verstappen, who also won Saturday’s sprint race. The only issue was some more bickering with his race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase over radio, as they continued their spat from Friday’s qualifying.
"But later on in the year, maybe we will get closer and we are hopeful we can challenge them at some point - whether that is this weekend, or who knows where? If there are any mistakes or mishaps, we will be right there to capitalise."
“It was just about surviving turn one. I could see it was all getting really tight,” Verstappen said. “I’ve been in that position before myself so I am just going to stay out of that and it worked out. From there onwards I made the right overtakes.”
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Lewis Hamilton is concerned about the likelihood that Max Verstappen could emerge victorious in all 10 remaining races this season.
The three-time world champion in waiting was almost a second ahead by the end of the lap and nearly five seconds in front by lap 20. At that pace, of course, and with the pressure constantly being asserted on the Spaniard, it may well have been that Verstappen would have come to pass him anyway. It’s inescapable, though, that it simply felt like a matter of time before it happened. It’s inescapable that Sainz’s amazing pole lap, which was a real high point for excitement and drama this season, felt – even then – largely irrelevant. It just didn't matter for the race, with Verstappen behind him and DRS there as the magic overtake button. It’s inescapable that fans, especially those drawn in by the box office 2021 season, will begin to turn off because of the lack of competition at the front
“I knew it was quite crucial for my race to get Charles on Lap 1,” Perez said.
Verstappen rose two places to fourth after Sainz bumped into Piastri on the first corner. Piastri had to retire, while Verstappen overtook Hamilton on Lap 6, Leclerc three laps later and made short work of Perez just before some rain fell briefly. Some good overtaking from Ocon moved the Frenchman up from 10th to eighth in the closing stages. It was an early end for Piastri, who had impressed with a second place in Saturday’s sprint race. A bad day for Sainz saw him retiring on Lap 25 and Leclerc moving above him in the standings.
Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc finished in third spot for a third podium of the season, with Lewis Hamilton in fourth for Mercedes ahead of Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso.
Defending Formula One champion Max Verstappen enters the mid-season break in unstoppable form, after emphatically winning the Belgian Grand Prix on Sunday for an eighth straight win and 10th overall of a crushingly dominant season. Despite starting from sixth place he finished 22.3 seconds ahead of teammate Sergio Perez to give Red Bull an easy 1-2. It moved Verstappen ominously closer to a third straight world title and his own F1 record of 15 wins from last year. Verstappen is 125 points ahead of Perez after just 12 races, and his next target is matching Sebastian Vettel’s F1 record of nine straight wins with a victory at the Dutch GP when the lopsided season resumes on Aug. 27.
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Verstappen has won the last eight races and he will match Sebastian Vettel's record of nine on the spin for Red Bull in 2013 if he triumphs in front of his orange-clad Dutch fans here on Sunday. Such is the dominance of Verstappen's machine - and the two-time world champion's supreme form - there is a feeling in the paddock, not only that Red Bull could become the first team to go through a campaign unbeaten, but that Verstappen could be victorious at each of the concluding 10 rounds.
I grew up watching Michael Schumacher in his pomp and remember vividly that it seemed, from race to race, that the right driver and the right car on the right day could challenge Schumi. Right now, nobody can touch Max. Only his team-mate Sergio Perez has bested him on a couple of occasions, such is the obliterative nature of the RB19 Newey rocket ship.
"It is a huge achievement to be second in the championship and it is something I feel has been overlooked," said Hamilton. "We want to win but I am really proud of the team and the steps we have taken.
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“Don’t forget Max, use your head, please,” Lambiase told Verstappen when he questioned why Perez was making his first tire change on Lap 14.
Verstappen defused any talk of tension with Lambiase.
After the F1 break there will be 10 races left, but most of the competition for places will be behind Verstappen. Alonso is one point ahead of Hamilton in third overall, with Leclerc and Russell level and Sainz seven points behind them.
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“I just want to have a nice time now, have a bit of time with family and friends,” The Associated Press quoted Verstappen as saying.