Max Verstappen can be so relaxed about the run of dominance he is currently on that “he’s having a smoke and a pancake”, says Lewis Hamilton after the Belgian Grand Prix.
Spa-Francorchamps saw Verstappen ease to victory in both the Sprint and Sunday’s main race, extending his unbeaten spell to eight races. After the Dutchman even made a light-hearted suggestion to make an extra pit stop during the grand prix to provide “practice” for his Red Bull team, it was suggested to Hamilton that it might be too easy for Verstappen, with the seven-time world champion referencing the laidback Dutch character in Austin Powers’ Goldmember.
“What do you want me to say?! I haven’t spoken to him…” Hamilton said. “He’s having a smoke and a pancake!”
It wasn’t just Verstappen who was out of reach for Hamilton on Sunday, with Charles Leclerc also able to keep the Mercedes driver at bay for the final spot on the podium.
“It always felt like he had an answer for all the laps I did. They had the upper hand this weekend, I was trying, I was pushing a lot, had a lot of deg – particularly in the middle sector – but still got fastest lap at the end, there’s lots of positives to take from this weekend. We’ve got work to do naturally, as always.”
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff agrees with Hamilton that Verstappen has the ability to joke around during races such is his advantage, but says it’s a position that has been earned.
“He has all the reasons to be a little bit cheeky,” Wolff said. “He’s just driving circles around everybody else on merit. There’s nothing else to say about that. We’ve got to watch that, and as much as that is annoying, that’s just above the lot.
“I think when you compare to the rest, Spa was an awful race (in the past) and before the last stop (Sergio) Perez, Leclerc and us were within six or eight seconds, and that is a major step for us because Spa was a disaster in 2022. We feel we’ve made that step, but then you’ve got that top guy who made another step in advance. It’s a fact, and we’ve got to turn around the facts.”
