Max Verstappen entered the history books with victory at the Italian Grand Prix – a record-breaking 10th consecutive win taking the Red Bull driver to a rarified plane of success never achieved by any driver in Formula One since the championship began in 1950.
What was striking about the win at Monza was that for all that it has been a relentless advance he completed it with an air of something of a stroll in the park – the Parco di Monza specifically and, perhaps, appropriately.
The parkland home of the circuit is where 10,000 trees were felled in storms that hit the region in late July and wreaked terrible devastation on the natural beauty surrounding the track. Verstappen, who might now be considered Formula One’s own force of nature, was equally as implacable in taking his record win.
Having played a waiting game in the initial phases of the race from second on the grid, he passed Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz for the lead on lap 15, from which point he was unassailable, as he has been in the previous nine races of his winning streak. Sainz finished third behind Verstappen’s Red Bull teammate Sergio Pérez, who came back to second from fifth on the grid.
The win, however, had always looked to be in Verstappen’s hands in a sequence he began with victory at the Miami GP in May. With his 10th consecutive win he has passed Sebastian Vettel’s record of nine in a row from 2013. Vettel texted Verstappen last week to give him encouragement in going for the record – the German reading the writing on the wall just as had almost every other observer.
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This is not to do down Verstappen’s achievement. His car is hugely dominant without doubt but the 25‑year‑old Dutchman has had to deliver as well. He came back from ninth to win in Miami, beating Pérez who had started from pole and in the process delivering a crushing blow to any ambitions his teammate had on the title. Similarly he went from sixth to the win in Spa. He has had to execute with absolute precision on 10 occasions and has done so almost flawlessly.
That it has become predictable and has drained the sport of its tension is not his fault and should not detract from the achievement. Just as when Tiger Woods was delivering inch-perfect deconstructions of golf courses across the world, Verstappen is an athlete at the peak of his power and wielding it with exquisite flair.
He said he was proud of the achievement and it was clearly a moment he savoured. After climbing from his car he held up both hands, all five fingers raised on both to reflect the 10th win. Where he will go with the gesture when the 11th, 12th or 13th fall – and on this form there is no reason he will not claim them – is anyone’s guess.
Verstappen and Red Bull duly celebrated with gusto as well they might. His team have now won 24 of the past 25 races and remain on course to score an unprecedented clean sweep this season.
Yet the home fans, too, were in the mood to make merry. Ferrari have had little to celebrate this year, so with a podium at the home race they embraced it almost as if it had been a win and boisterously booed Verstappen, who now occupies the same pantomime baddie figure that Lewis Hamilton once did at Monza.
As the start-finish straight thronged with fans, flags and smoke from red flares, still one of the most stirring sights in motor sport, an echoing chorus of “Carlos, Carlos, Carlos,” boomed between the grandstands. Verstappen might have a remarkable record but they were determined to take all the pleasure they could from Ferrari’s man who had fought so hard.
Once Verstappen had the lead he cantered to the victory but Sainz had challenged with the machinery he had and then provided some late‑race fireworks as he and his Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc vied mercilessly with one another for third. It was glorious stuff that clearly stirred the spirits of the tifosi with Sainz just beating his teammate into fourth.
Verstappen, with some humility, said he would not have believed his achievement was possible as he tried to take it in but with 47 career victories now even some of F1’s other great records look to be potentially within his grasp. As is his third title: he leads Pérez by 145 points in the world championship, on course to potentially see out the title in the next two or three meetings.
George Russell and Hamilton were fifth and sixth for Mercedes.
Albon was an impressive seventh for Williams, Norris eighth for McLaren, Fernando Alonso ninth for Aston Martin and Valtteri Bottas 10th for Alfa Romeo.
