Max Verstappen said Red Bull’s season has been “incredible” after setting a new record for winning the most races in a single year.
The world champion scored a commanding victory in the Mexican Grand Prix after taking the lead from third place at the start.Verstappen, who clinched the world championship two rounds earlier in Qatar, said Red Bull are “experiencing an incredible season.”
He dived to the inside of pole-winner Charles Leclerc as they sped towards the first corner to take the lead at the start. Although the Red Bull driver briefly surrendered the lead when he made his first pit stop, he soon returned to the front of the field.
His progress to victory was only disrupted when the race was red-flagged shortly before half-distance when Kevin Magnussen crashed his Haas. Verstappen restarted from pole position and kept his lead, going on to claim his record-breaking 16th victory of the season.
“Today of course we had to start P3 but I think the pace of the car was very, very good,” he said. “We tried to do a different strategy to everyone else and unfortunately with the red flag we couldn’t really show it basically, but nevertheless on those hard tyres at the end, I think, we were very, very strong.”
Following the final restart Verstappen pulled away quickly enough to win the race by 13 seconds from Lewis Hamilton.
However he was the only Red Bull driver to reach the finish as his team mate Sergio Perez went out in a first-lap collision with Leclerc. “Of course unfortunately Checo retired on lap one but the crowd stayed and they have been amazing,” Verstappen added.
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Armchair Expert (@armchairexpert)
29th October 2023, 22:57
Incredible season from incredible driver. What else Max can do to prove it to some people he’s indeed the GOAT? Because whether you like it or not, when Max retires in 5-10-15 years and shatters every imaginable record, there no longer even be a discussion about it. It will be as obvious to everyone then, as it is for me and few others right now.
Doggy
30th October 2023, 13:55
I don’t believe that there is such thing a ls a GOAT (In any sport BTW)
But just for the sake of playing along, maybe Max needs to win Another 4 championships to match what Lewis and Schumacher did. That will be good for starters.
Coventry Climax
29th October 2023, 23:24
Yep, that’s about accurate.
Only
is doubtful. I’m no fan of him, and he crashed alright, but it was his left rear suspension that broke, pointing the car left quite suddenly. He ‘crashed his Haas’ sounds rather like it was entirely his fault, but I don’t think anyone would have managed to keep that car out of the barriers. He’d been off shortly before and that’s probably where the suspension sustained damage already. In that respect it was his own fault, but still.
MacLeod (@macleod)
30th October 2023, 8:16
I don’t think Max knew that when he was saying that as he just came out of his car. In the cool room you saw his reaction he said wauw something broke or something like that…..
Coventry Climax
30th October 2023, 21:33
But those weren’t Verstappens words, they were Keith’s.