In the space of two races, Hamilton had displaced him at the top of the table. Verstappen treated home fans to one of his best performancesWorse followed for Verstappen in Hungary, where he was blamelessly eliminated in a first corner collision. Victory for Hamilton slashed Verstappen’s lead. But he remained unwilling to give any quarter to his rival, and, as the pair furiously disputed the lead on the first lap of the grand prix, contact was made, and the Red Bull came off worse. He went off at the start in France but sharp Red Bull strategy teed him up to pass Hamilton for victory, and he was never headed in the two Austrian rounds.Īfter beating Silverstone pole winner Hamilton to sprint qualifying victory, Verstappen’s lead over his rival stood at 33 points. The next three races all fell to Verstappen. But after he got ahead of Leclerc and Hamilton to lead in Azerbaijan, his left-rear tyre failed six laps from home. In Monaco he qualified second but inherited pole position following Charles Leclerc’s crash at the Swimming Pool (an error Verstappen committed three years earlier) and romped to victory. But Red Bull held sway over the next five races, and Verstappen nearly won all of them. The Mercedes cars had pace in Portugal and Spain, where Verstappen had to give best to Hamilton, though he made life more difficult for himself with track limits errors at Autodromo do Algarve. Verstappen made amends at Imola where, following his only qualifying defeat to team mate Sergio Perez all year, he shot into the lead at the start, elbowing Hamilton aside, and never looked back (though he got his RB16B rather too sideways at the restart).Īdvert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free His driving wasn’t flawless, and at times it certainly wasn’t pretty, but he was relentless in the races and often dazzlingly quick in qualifying.Ī season-opening win got away from him more due to the timing of his first pit stop than his unsuccessful re-pass attempt on Hamilton. When the Red Bull was a smidgeon quicker, Verstappen took maximum advantage. When the Red Bull was on a par with the Mercedes, Verstappen won when he could. Then came that controversial, title-deciding twist in the tale. Verstappen had won nine races up to that point (one of them the half-points, one-lap washout at Spa) but Lewis Hamilton was poised to equal that and edge ahead in the standings. Despite that, his championship hopes appeared to be over as the final laps ticked away at the last round of the season.
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