RACE REPORT

Home-turf GPs saw Max’s consecutive wins tally equal Ascari and Vettel’s record. Mark Hughes reports on the latest routs

Belgian GP

Dutch GP

Max Verstappen was born in Belgium to a Belgian mother. But a Dutch father. He says he feels Dutch. So he had two consecutive home grands prix, one at Spa before the summer break, one at Zandvoort afterwards.

It was a neat arrangement, especially when in winning them both he equalled the all-time record of nine consecutive grand prix victories (shared with Alberto Ascari and Sebastian Vettel). He dominated on each occasion, though in quite different ways.

If you wished to construct a circuit showcasing the Red Bull RB19’s superiority to the full, it would look a lot like Spa- Francorchamps – because of the extreme demands it makes of aerodynamic efficiency, with its two flat-out sectors sandwiching a longer one which demands high-speed downforce.

The bigger the conflict between those two demands, the bigger the advantage superior aero efficiency will bring. The RB19, in deriving a bigger proportion of its total downforce from the lowdrag underbody and less from the high-drag wings, is by far the most aerodynamically efficient car on the grid.

If you wished to create a track which maximised the lap time rewards of Max Verstappen’s talents, it might also look a lot like Spa-Francorchamps, because of the conflicts between a) the slow corners of the Bus Stop, La Source and Les Combes and b) the long fast corners of that middle sector.

The slow corners require quick directionchange response. The fast ones require rear-end stability. In set-up terms, those requirements oppose each other. Any driver who can live with some instability at high speed can run a set-up which will buy chunks of lap time in the slow corners by minimising understeer. That’s Max Verstappen.