The prodigious boredom of Max Verstappen and the warnings for overcoming the track: "We have all laughed"

Behind the Red Bull garages, while the Montmeló public filed towards the car parks, a Max Verstappen mechanic was taking a breather and a colleague of his, Checo Pérez's mechanic, appeared. “This guy is incredible [This guy is incredible],” he said, pointing to a Verstappen sign and the two laughed together.

Possibly both were referring to the scene experienced during the race, a scene that perfectly exemplified the absolute, unbreakable, overwhelming dominance that the Dutchman exercises in the current Formula 1. In first position, always in first position, Verstappen was warned up to three times -twice at turn 5 and once at turn 10–for having exceeded the limits of the track and, for this reason, at the end, they pointed out a flag to him black and white. Nothing important, actually. just a warning. But if he left the asphalt again he could receive a penalty of several positions and lose the victory that was already his.

On the radio, his team told him about the danger, pointed out that he had more than 15 seconds ahead of the second, Lewis Hamilton, and asked him to brake. And what did Verstappen do? He stepped on the accelerator like crazy, set a record in one of the three sectors and achieved the fastest lap. “Okay, man, now you can relax and finish the race,” his engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase, told him over the radio, who later, when Hamilton took the fastest lap from him, did not dare to tell him.

Sainz's first corner

“Driving this car is a great pleasure. I think we have always followed the right strategy. Winning here is always magnificent”, declared Verstappen, who celebrated the first victory of his life in Formula 1 precisely at this circuit, seven years ago, just when he jumped from Toro Rosso to Red Bull. «The three warnings for exceeding the limits of the track are things that happen. The team has informed me but they don't know how fast I can go and I could really go faster without going off. So that's what I've done. When I finished that fast lap we all laughed,” said the current champion, with full control of what happens on the asphalt. In fact, if there was a moment, a single moment, in which he could have been overtaken, it was in the first corner, when Carlos Sainz, in second place on the grid, positioned himself right next to him to threaten him.. “I started with harder tires, I knew I had to defend the position and I did it,” he said.

With his victory, five in the first seven races, even better than last year, Verstappen dominates the World Championship with 53 points ahead of his teammate, Checo Pérez, and 71 points over Fernando Alonso, who is still third.. A few circuits that choked him in 2022 lie ahead, such as Silverstone, Singapore or Sao Paulo, but in his current state of form it seems unlikely that he will lose the title.