Reigning World Champion Max Verstappen was told by race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase to “trust my instructions” during the Belgian Grand Prix, on his way to yet another victory.
Despite having started sixth, Verstappen found himself in first by Lap 17, with him having breezed through the field.
Verstappen ultimately cruised to victory once he did get into the lead, with his win having marked his 10th of 2023.
Whilst it was his 10th win overall for the season, his victory at Spa-Francorchamps was his eighth in a row.
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He’s simply unstoppable at the moment; however, he still had an interesting moment with Lambiase.
When hunting Sergio Perez in the early stages of the race for the lead, Verstappen was informed by his race director to “trust my instructions”.
Lambiase said this to Verstappen after he asked his race engineer if Perez was saving his tyres, something Lambiase refused to confirm.
Verstappen ultimately got past Perez with ease, on his way to an easy win.
The Dutchman enjoyed the race and admitted afterwards that it was “just about surviving turn one”, due to starting in a lower position than normal.
“It’s a new spot, that’s for sure – P6. I knew that we had a great car. It was just about surviving turn one,” Verstappen said in his post-race interview.
“I could see it was all getting really tight. I’ve been in that position before myself so I am just going to stay out of that and it worked out. From there onwards I made the the right overtakes, moves. I just got a little bit stuck in the beginning in a DRS Zone and once that cleared I could just do my own thing – really enjoyable.”
Verstappen also discussed his conversations with Lambiase which took place during the race, with the race engineer having also asked the 25-year-old not to push.
Somewhat comically, the Dutchman set the fastest lap after being asked to use his “head”.
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Despite this though, he insists that he did “slow down”.
“I did slow down,” Verstappen insisted.
“We all look at the numbers, we look at the wear on the tyres and this track is super-hard on the tyres. You don’t want to do any unnecessary things, and that’s what we did until the end.”