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“Even Mercedes Couldn’t”: Riding the Wave of Glory, Max Verstappen Brutally Humiliates Lewis Hamilton and Co.

Published 07/27/2023, 2:20 PM EDT

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via Imago

Max Verstappen is making a habit out of making the other 19 drivers look silly. But maybe the Dutch lion has picked up this trait from his team! While Verstappen dominates, Red Bull themselves have drawn themselves to be a class apart this year. That being said, this isn’t just any other year where a team is leading away from the pack. The Milton-Keynes-based outfit is running rampant in 2023 and creating history almost every weekend!

Verstappen is arguably miles clear of the competition this year. But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t spare a thought or two for his arch-nemesis, Lewis Hamilton. Even in his moment in the sun, the Dutch lion will not miss a single opportunity to get one up on the Brit and the Silver Arrows.

Max Verstappen dismisses Mercedes’ supremacy

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After the events of 2021, Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton etched their names alongside each other as eternal rivals in the annals of F1 history. Naturally, the two always want to battle it out. But while they can’t do it on track as we speak, Verstappen has ensured to land a solid blow on the 38-year-old and his Mercedes team off of it.

On the eve of the Belgian Grand Prix, Verstappen was quoted as saying, “This streak is good, but even in Mercedes’ dominant years, that team couldn’t do this. That while they were much more dominant then [in terms of absolute pace] than we are at the moment. So I can only be proud of my team.”

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Even though Verstappen chose to take a dig at the Silver Arrows, they returned the favor with an intense compliment.

Toto Wolff bows down to Verstappen and Red Bull

We’ve heard people often say that Red Bull and Max Verstappen have been in a completely different league all season long. But for Mercedes team principal and shareholder, Toto Wolff this may actually have become a reality at the Hungarian GP!

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via Reuters

Wolff was quoted by The Independent as saying, “It was like a bunch of Formula Two cars against a Formula One car,” while speaking of Verstappen’s Hungarian masterclass. He continued, “In the F2 gang, our car was quick. The F1 car won by 33 seconds. We had the second quickest car today, and obviously we can talk it up and say we could have been second.”

“But that’s irrelevant because you have a car that finished 39 seconds ahead [of Hamilton], and was probably cruising a lot of the time.”

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Can anyone stop Red Bull this season?

WATCH THIS STORY | New Lewis Hamilton F1 documentary coming to Apple TV+

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Written by:

Anirban Aly Mandal

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Anirban Aly Mandal is a senior F1 writer at EssentiallySports, with over 500 articles published on the platform. Anirban's love for F1 started when he discovered a copy of F1 2014 while playing on his computer, and he has since then dived deep into the world of motorsports. Anirban's expertise goes beyond just writing - he has also written several academic papers focused on the domain of motorsports.
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Edited by:

Aishwary Gaonkar