Max Verstappen has admitted that Lewis Hamilton was “impossible to pass” during last Sunday’s Belgian Grand Prix, when the Mercedes driver had his DRS in operation.
Following a five-place grid penalty for a gearbox change, the reigning World Champion was demoted to sixth on the grid at Spa-Francorchamps.
As a result, the Red Bull driver had the likes of Hamilton, Charles Leclerc and Sergio Perez to overtake.
Unsurprisingly, he overtook everybody ahead of him by Lap 17, before going on to win an eighth consecutive race of the season and his 10th in total for 2023.
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His victory took him to 45 career wins, a number which will likely surpass 50 very comfortably before the campaign is completed.
Verstappen’s strong win also extended his lead in the Drivers’ Championship to 125 points, a sizeable margin to take into the summer break.
The hardest part of Verstappen’s win last Sunday was seemingly getting past Hamilton, as Mercedes boasted the highest top speed in Belgium.
For several laps, Hamilton ran within a second of Leclerc ahead, meaning he had DRS in use.
When Hamilton had DRS, Verstappen was unable to overtake the seven-time World Champion.
The Red Bull star had to wait for Hamilton to fall outside DRS range of Leclerc, before being able to pounce.
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“I was a bit unlucky, because I got stuck behind Lewis, because he was in the DRS of Charles, and with them having the highest top speed, Lewis, this weekend, it was just impossible to pass,” Verstappen explained, as reported by the Mirror.
“So I had to wait for him to drop out of the DRS and as soon as he didn’t have DRS anymore, I could pass. And then I think two or three laps later, I could pass Charles. But with that, I think I hurt my tyres a bit too much.
“So basically, as soon as I had my stop on to the Medium, I could feel that the car was in a much better window and I could go a lot faster. So yeah, from there onwards that was really where it started to come alive.”