Verstappen overtook Senna in Austria with insulting superiority

Max Verstappen continues to expand his legend. He broke most of the precociousness records when he started the ‘Great Circus’. And now you want to pulverize any other data. At 25 years old, all the time in the world ahead of him, but there is already a mature piloting, as one of the most complete in memory, The Dutchman won the 2023 F1 Austrian GP making good use of his car’s superiority and achieved his 7th victory in 9 races at the head unopposed to his third consecutive F1 title.

CLASSIFICATION OF F1 WORLD CUP 2023

In those 25 years, as of this Sunday he is the 5th driver with the most wins in F1 history, with 42, surpassing the driver he has been most compared to in his career, Ayrton Senna. “Senna is not my idol. he is my father”Max said at the same time. That shows his character, different from others, of a predator, of a pilot who doesn’t care what people think. The easiest thing was to say yes, whose example to follow was always Ayrton’s. Fortunately, everyone will applaud him. But that wasn’t Max. The Dutch don’t care at all. Just think about winning. Live for and win. He was brought up with that philosophy of life. And it’s clear from the way he won.

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He did not want to leave the fast lap to his teammate ‘Checo’ Pérez, who came back from 15th place to a podium position (3rd) after Leclerc (2nd). It was too much with two laps to go, with a 23 second margin on Charles, he decided to stop to put on new rubber. Something may have happened to him in the pits. But he didn’t care. He changed tires, re-entered the track in the lead, had time to warm up the tires and crossed the finish line, achieving the fastest lap point and the victory. Insulting.

Ferrari has improved but it’s still Ferrari

Verstappen won comfortably, that didn’t change, although this time his rival did. If in the first part of the championship his biggest opponent was ‘Checo’ Pérez or the Alonso’s Aston Martin, this time, it was Ferrari who attempted the impossible. And if it seems unthinkable that no one will steal victory in Austria from Verstappen, Ferrari wants to complicate life a little more than a shot in the footwhich puts Leclerc’s starting position ahead of the faster Sainz.

At the Maranello wall, no one dared to question ‘Il Principino’ for a race or even just a moment. Not even with the numbers in hand against the Monegasque! On lap 9, Sainz was close to Charles, with better speed than Leclerc who was losing power against Verstappen. “Give me a rhythm,” Sainz said on the radio. “I guess you’re windy. I don’t need to tell you.” In this way, without saying, Carlos asked as they let Charles pass. “We stand by the plan. Don’t attack right now.” They respond to Carlos, who is losing track of time with his partner. “Alright. I have a rhythm. Let me at least try if I can go to Max ”, Sainz commented desperately. But it’s not like that. Carlos stayed close to Charles, showing that he survived more, but no one dared to try changing positions to try something different. Should keeping Charles happy be more important than wasting time on the race? What did Ferrari lose by passing Sainz to shoot? Carlos got some time that could have been used and maybe the team benefited. But they did nothing.

This is how a virtual ‘Safety Car’ came on lap 14. Carlos was very comfortable at that moment, with good speed but Ferrari decided to stop its two drivers at that moment. Sainz was too close to Charles and had to wait for a bad save from Leclerc (4.2) and to make matters worse, his save was also bad (4.3). Leclerc returned to 2nd on the track and Carlos lost two positions, with Hamilton and Norris, who stopped at a turn earlier, and with Pérez who did not stop. “Why didn’t you lock me out? Come on, guys, come on…”, Sainz complained to his wall. He wasted a lot of time. Sainz was there. He started to shoot with everything and hit well Norris and then Hamilton with great pace. I was shooting at everyone. Trying to make up the seconds lost for his team. But he got away. He went over the track limits too many times and it cost him A 5 second penalty he would serve at his second and final stop. Charles was just faster than Carlos at that moment, when the man from Madrid was warned they could penalize him. From there, the Spaniard was hammered again. He had to try to defend his position on the podium against a Pérez who made his last stop 5 laps later than the Spaniard.

But in a superior car, Pérez arrived. Sainz tried his best on laps 60 and 61. He was brilliant and passed behind Pérez at the line detecting the first DRS to give him the pass back in the following meters. He took two laps to defend himself like a lion. But the third time, ‘Checo’ saw through his trick and ended up beating him with the car and the newer tires. Sainz was 4th. It deserves more prizes. But now everything played against him.

Alonso, 6th in an Aston Martin away

Fernando Alonso was 6th. There was little he could do in an Aston Martin that had no expected speed in Austria, which was overtaken by the step forward made by Ferrari with the improvements brought by the Italians to the Spielberg track, and also by Norris’s McLaren (5th), which in the This track he debuted some evolutions which the Woking team improved a lot. We have to wait to see if after Red Bull, the leadership of the chasing group alternates depending on the characteristics of each track and the new pieces that the teams bring. The battle behind Red Bull is exciting and unpredictable. Now, Alonso’s most desired was the 6th place and he achieved it. He passed Stroll at the start to be 5th and then Pérez overtook him on his return. He could not have wished for more and he finished the event alone, away from Norris, 3″9 behind, and put 8″8 on Hamilton with a Mercedes who this time had to settle for 1st 7th place for Lewis and 8th for Russell. .