Max Verstappen has denied he’s begun thinking about the prospect of being world champion for the third time following another dominant win.
The Dutchman cruised to victory in the Austrian Grand Prix – his margin to Charles Leclerc masking his actual performance after stopping in the latter stages to pick up the bonus point for fastest lap.
His success at the Red Bull Ring was his fifth F1 victory on the bounce and seventh of the year to continue his team’s perfect start to the 2023 campaign.
Verstappen now holds an 81-point advantage in the drivers’ championship over team-mate Sergio Perez with nine of the year’s 22 races run.
“I don’t like to think about that yet,” he said of the prospect of becoming a triple world champion.
“I’m just enjoying the moment, driving with this car, working with the team.
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“I think the whole weekend we have done a really good job.
“A Sprint weekend is always very hectic and a lot of things can go wrong,” Verstappen added, winner of Saturday’s F1 Sprint.
“Luckily a lot of things went right for us this weekend, so I’m just very happy.”
Verstappen started from pole and held that position into the opening turn.
That, he reasoned, was the most significant moment as he could run his own race from there.
“Of course, we opted not to box during the Virtual Safety Car and just follow our normal strategy, and I think that worked out really well,” he observed.
The Virtual Safety Car was called when Nico Hulkenberg pulled off the road with an apparent engine failure in his Haas.
Ferrari took the opportunity to pit Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, who were running second and third at the time.
Verstappen remained on track, taking to the lane on Lap 25 for the first of two scheduled stops.
Swapping onto the hard tyres, it dropped him to third, though not far from the gearbox of Sainz.
He made short work of the Spaniard before chasing down and passing Leclerc to reclaim the lead.
“Their tyre life was not that high around here, and I think our stints were perfect,” Verstappen opined.
“I could see already the few laps before the Virtual Safety Car came out, we were pulling out quite a gap, so I knew I would get them back eventually,” he added.
“I think just following our own plan, I think at that time, was the best way forward.”
Verstappen became world champion in 2021, beating Lewis Hamilton, before taking a second title last year.
Should he win the 2023 title, he would become just the fifth driver in the sport’s history to win three successive championships, joining Juan Manuel Fangio, Michael Schumacher, Sebastian Vettel, and Lewis Hamilton.
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