Verstappen - The African Mirror

Oct

2023

Team-by-team analysis of the Mexico City Grand Prix

TEAM-BY-TEAM analysis of Sunday's Mexico City Grand Prix, the 19th race of the 22-round Formula One season (teams listed in championship order): RED BULL (Max Verstappen 1, Sergio Perez retired) Verstappen lined up third and made a great getaway to take the lead into the first corner. He also led cleanly from the re-start. The win was his 16th of the season, a record, and 51st of his career to go level in the all-time lists with French great Alain Prost. He has now won five of the last six races in Mexico. Perez tried to pass Ferrari's Leclerc at…

Jun

2023

By ALAN BALDWIN

Verstappen wins in Spain to continue Red Bull sweep

SPORT

MAX Verstappen won the Spanish Grand Prix from pole position to stretch his Formula One championship lead to 53 points and continue Red Bull's sweep of the season with the team's seventh success in as many races. Seven-times world champion Lewis Hamilton was second for Mercedes, but a distant 24.090 seconds behind, with teammate George Russell completing the podium on a cloudy but dry afternoon at Barcelona's Circuit de Catalunya. Red Bull's Sergio Perez, Verstappen's closest rival in a season that looks sure to crown the dominant Dutch 25-year-old for a third time, finished fourth after fighting back from 11th…

Dec

2021

By The African Mirror

Hamilton wins dramatic race, sets showdown for final race

SPORT

AFRICAN MIRROR REPORTER WORLD champion Lewis Hamilton drove a race of his life to win a dramatic, incident-filled F1 in Saudi Arabia and set the scene for a showdown in the final race with rival Max Verstappen. The victory has left Hamilton and Verstappen tied at the top of the world driver championship - each with 369.5 points, They will fight it out in the last race set for the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi. It was an epic wheel-to-wheel battle between Hamilton and Verstappen from early in the race, which Hamilton led from pole, to register his third…

Sep

2021

By The African Mirror

Hamilton’s historic win at Sochi marks his 100th

SPORT

BOITUMELO RANTAO On a partly wet Russian afternoon, world champion Lewis Hamilton drove like a legend to win the Russian Grand Prix, retake the world championship race and became the first driver in F1 history to record 100 victories. After he took the chequered flag, Hamilton conceded that a century of victories was a hard toil all the way. “It was hard work,” he said.”. To get to a hundred…” Hamilton’s driving and Mercedes strategy won the race that many thought was going to be won by McLaren’s Lando Norris, who led the race until lap 50 of the 53…

Sep

2021

By The African Mirror

I am lucky to be alive, says Hamilton after rival’s tyre landed on his head

SPORT

BOITUMELO RANTAO THE rear right wheel of his rival's car landed on the safety Halo, just above his head, and seven time world champion Lewis Hamilton, who escaped with a headache, knows that he is lucky to be alive. There was drama in Lap 26 of the Monda F1 race when Hamilton and Red Bull's Max Verstappen battled into the tight Variante del Rettifilo. Hamilton had just pitted and Verstappen was making his way to the front after a horrific 11 second pit stop. With none of the drivers prepared to give room, Verstappen car ended on top of Hamilton's…

Jul

2021

By The African Mirror

Verstappen earns maiden grand slam in Austria

SPORT

MAX Verstappen sealed a dominant end to Formula One’s first triple-header of the 2021 season, extending his lead over championship Lewis Hamilton to 32-points. The Dutch driver took victory in the Austrian Grand Prix after leading every lap in the race, starting on pole, and taking the fastest lap. Reigning world champion Hamilton slumped to a fourth-place finish with car damage after taking too much kerb on turn 10. Verstappen led into the first corner and soon stretched out his lead to five seconds as a battle ensued behind his Red Bull. Verstappen’s teammate Sergio Perez, in his 200th race,…

Apr

2021

By The African Mirror

Electric Imola qualifying

SPORT

DEFENDING World champion Lewis Hamilton stormed through the final qualifying session claiming his 99th pole position of his illustrious career. Hamilton laid down a tough marker in the opening runs of the qualifying shootout with a provisional pole time of 1:14.411. Hamilton failed to improve on his final run, but the benchmark he set would be enough. Red Bull driver Sergio Perez put together a blistering final run in Q3 to qualify in second for his first-ever front row start. Perez qualified ahead of teammate Max Verstappen, who was out-qualified by a team mate for the first time since Malaysia…