MAX VERSTAPPEN made it 10 wins in a row to set a new F1 record as Ferrari’s attempts to stop his juggernaut failed.
Verstappen was held up for 15 laps by Carlos Sainz, who had taken pole the previous day for the Italian team in their home race.
At first the Dutchman locked up as he tried to squeeze past the Spaniard’s Ferrari into turn one.
But he got the move done four corners later to move into the lead and was untroubled to the end to open up a 145-point advantage in the championship over his teammate Sergio Perez.
It was so comfortable, his race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase labelled it “a stroll in the park” over the team’s radio.
When quizzed about his landmark victory, Verstappen said: “I never would have believed that it was possible but we had to work for it today and that made it a lot more fun.
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“I was just trying to stay patient. I could see they [Ferrari] were struggling with rear tyres and I had to pick my moment.”
Perez, who started in fifth, produced an excellent recovery drive to finish in second place.
However, he was made to fight for it as he had narrow escapes when passing George Russell on lap 14 and Sainz on lap 46.
He said: “It was the maximum we could achieve today. It was so hard to overtake.”
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Sainz held on to take the final podium place but he had a real fight with his teammate Charles Leclerc, which is certain to spark some internal investigation.
Having both been warned to keep it clean, Leclerc still kept the pressure and came close to taking both cars out on three occasions on the final few laps.
Sainz said: “It was very tough, it was very hard to keep the Red Bull’s behind and I used the rear tyres up, but I did all I could to defend.
“It was hard racing and it is always a pleasure to race against Charles, he is a good racer and we had fun out there.”
Russell and Lewis Hamilton finished in fifth and sixth place respectively with both drivers picking up five second penalties.
Russell was penalised for missing the first turn while Hamilton was sanctioned for cutting across Oscar Piastri, breaking the McLaren man’s front wing.
Towards the end of the race, Hamilton could be heard on race radio saying: “Now we’re screwed because I don’t know how these tyres are going to last.”
Alex Albon was seventh in his Williams ahead of Lando Norris, who came home in eighth place in his McLaren.
Source: Motorsport - thesun.co.uk
