‘Ha!’ – Max Verstappen mocks title rivals’ tactics after breaking stunning all-time F1 record
Max Verstappen was left laughing at his title rivals while cruising to victory at the Italian Grand Prix.
The reigning four-time world champion surprisingly held onto his pole position ahead of McLaren double Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri for his third win of the season, this time at Monza.
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In doing so, he broke an incredible record, with his finishing time of 1 hour, 13 minutes and 23 seconds making it the fastest race in Formula 1 history, taking a Michael Schumacher record that had stood for 22 years.
Yet despite his heroics, the real drama was just behind with championship leader Piastri battling the man second in the standings - Norris.
Norris had the beating of his Australian teammate all weekend, and was set to best him on the circuit before a botched pitstop put Piastri ahead.
Then, rather remarkably, McLaren told Piastri to let the Brit back past as a result.
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Piastri begrudgingly accepted the call, but first put up a minor protest, responding over team radio: “I mean, a slow pitstop is part of racing.
“I don’t really get it, but if you really want me to do it I’ll do it.”
The 24-year-old obliged, and managed to keep within a second and DRS range of Norris with three laps to go, but failed to make a move.
As a result, Norris gained three points on Piastri, rather than losing three, and race winner Verstappen made it clear he would’ve been far more ruthless with a teammate.
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When informed of the swap by his engineer, Verstappen responded: “Ha! Just because he has a slow stop?”
Why it's hard to imagine Verstappen doing the same
The Dutchman has always been far more old school with his teammates, with one such example in 2022 proving it.
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A season earlier Red Bull No.2 Sergio Perez had held up Lewis Hamilton enough in the finale that Verstappen could then pass him for the title.
Yet when Perez was battling for his best ever championship position of second almost a year later, Verstappen refused to let him pass, and his teammate ended up third.
Ruthlessly explaining his decision on team radio, he said: "I told you already last summer. You guys don't ask that again to me, ok?
"Are we clear about that? I gave my reasons and I stand by it."
It was heavily rumoured that Verstappen was responding to a Perez qualifying crash in Monaco earlier that year which secured pole position.
Things are different at McLaren
McLaren, though, have long done things very differently to Red Bull, something even Verstappen's engineer reminded him of in Monza.
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Gianpiero Lambiase replied to his laughing driver: "It's not our business.
"But I guess it keeps it fair between the drivers in terms of the championship."
At the same time Piastri was reminded of a similar incident last year in Hunary when Norris allowed him past after getting a favourable strategy despite being the slower driver.
On that occasion only Norris was in the title fight against Verstappen, but this time around it's just about the McLarens.
After the Italian Grand Prix, Team Principal Andrea Stella explained the situation from his point of view.
"When we began the pit stop sequence, we pitted Oscar first with the clear intent that we wouldn’t swap positions. Unfortunately, that compounded with a slow pit stop," he said.
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"Since the order had been set with Oscar first, and then the delay, we felt the right thing was to return to the positions we had before the stop."
"I’m sure Oscar is comfortable with this, he already was during the race. It’s another example of us showing the values and principles we hold at McLaren.”
Meanwhile, Norris added: "As for the swap with Oscar, that was something we agreed as a team beforehand. If it was the other way around, the same thing would have happened.
"It’s not what I want—I don’t want to win or lose positions like this—but it was the fairest decision.
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"It wasn’t my fault, it wasn’t Oscar’s fault, it was just a team mistake that cost me. It doesn’t look great, but in the end it was the most fair thing to do between teammates."
Despite Verstappen's win, he's still 63 points off Norris in second, with Piastri a further 31 ahead.
F1 standings after the Italian Grand Prix
- Oscar Piastri (McLaren) -- 324 points
- Lando Norris (McLaren) -- 293
- Max Verstappen (Red Bull) -- 230
- George Russell (Mercedes) -- 194
- Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) -- 163
- Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari) -- 117
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