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F1 pundit Scott Mitchell-Malm recently explained how easy it was for Max Verstappen to dominate and win the 2023 F1 Spanish GP.
The Dutchman had a grand slam of a weekend, where he took the pole position, led every lap of the race, recorded the fastest lap of the race, and, of course, won the race.
Speaking on The Race F1 podcast, Scott Mitchell-Malm explained how the race was like a game for Max Verstappen and how he was not even giving 100 percent most of the time. Even after the pit for new tires after their first stint, the reigning world champion was faster than them on used tires.
"I'm not saying for a second that Max ran this race at 100 percent for the entirety," Scott Mitchell-Malm said. "But there were moments when he was almost toying with the opposition. I've lost count for how many times I have said this to you during the race but there were times where it just felt sarcastic, the lap times he was able to do."
"There was a point I think, towards the end of his first stint where a few of the early pit stoppers behind him had already stopped and put fresh tires on. And Max is on 20-plus lap old tires, and he is going four five-tenths quicker than them. It's a sporting form of mockery," he continued.
Scott Mitchell-Malm also explained how, despite being shown a black and white flag for cutting a corner too many times, Max Verstappen still managed to get the fastest lap of the race and win the race by a country mile.
"We saw that again at the end of the race, where Max was under the caution for track limits and he was being warned by his race engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase, to cut it out basically and be careful, just bring it home. So on lap 61, Max punches in a fastest lap of the race by four-tenths of a second. It was almost like a game to him," Scott Mitchell-Malm concluded.
Max Verstappen delighted after winning the 2023 F1 Spanish GP
Max Verstappen had the strongest race weekend in Spain. The Red Bull driver comfortably won the race with a gap of more than 20 seconds between him and Lewis Hamilton, who finished second.
"It's a big pleasure, you know, to drive with a car like this. And I think yeah, it showed again today. We had quite a lot of different tyre strategies out there. I think for most of the race we were on the right one. But again, a win here is incredible," the Dutchman told Nico Rosberg in Parc Ferme.
Max Verstappen currently leads the drivers' championship table with 170 points, while his teammate Sergio Perez is in second with only 117 points.
