The surprise Max Verstappen crash claim to take with a ‘grain of salt’

Ziggo Sport commentator Rick Winkelman is taking Max Verstappen’s claim he almost crashed watching Sergio Perez battle Fernando Alonso with a “grain of salt”.

As Verstappen romped off into the distance at the Brazilian Grand Prix and built up an eight-second gap to Lando Norris, the Red Bull driver revealed he spent the final few laps watching the Perez versus Alonso battle play out on the big screens.

A thriller as Perez hounded Alonso for the final podium position, edging ahead on the penultimate lap only to lose it on the final one as Alonso used DRS to sweep past at Turn 4, Verstappen says he nearly went off the track he was so engrossed.

Max Verstappen watched the Perez/Alonso battle on the screens

“The last few laps I was watching – I almost drove off the track myself when I saw them fighting on the straight,” he told Viaplay.

“At Turn 4 I almost drove straight off the track because I was watching the screens so much.”

But while Dutch pundit Winkelman accepts the drivers do take a look at the screens around the track, he doubts Verstappen genuinely nearly crashed.

“I would take that comment with a grain of salt,” he told Motorsport.com.

“But it is true that those men often have time to watch on the large screens next to the track what else is happening and how special that is. At the same time, it does give the force majeure of Max again.”

Perez may have fallen short in his quest for a top-three result at the Interlagos circuit but Verstappen most definitely did not.

The 25-year-old claimed the race win ahead of Norris, his record-breaking 17th for this season.

Winkelman believes he’ll add an 18th, which could be a 53rd overall, at the next race in Las Vegas.

“Max will win that too. Number 53,” he said. “All those records are special and he always knows how to improve them. So what he does becomes more and more special.”

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With his 52nd victory on Sunday, Verstappen overtook Alain Prost in the all-time wins ranking for fourth place.

As his 17th of the season, he extended his record for the most wins in a single season, and the laps he led at the Interlagos circuit meant Red Bull broke Mercedes’ 2016 record for the most laps led in a season.

“It’s not normal what kind of season he is having, isn’t it? This is another unique moment, I think, that we are experiencing this with all the records that Max has achieved,” said Winkelman.

“The records they are looking for are becoming increasingly exclusive and weird. Records are being sought everywhere, something that has never happened before or last happened a long time ago. Then Max manages to get that strange record again, so there is something new every week, but that’s cool.”

Verstappen also moved onto a win percentage record for the season of 77.27, beating Alberto Ascari’s record from 1952.

Arguably the most dominant season ever in F1, Winkelman added: “That seems to be the case if it isn’t already. I think we can say that.

“Of course, it remains difficult to compare, because it is a record that has stood for a long time. That was really a different era in Formula 1, so I think you should mainly look at what is happening now or what has happened in recent years than what happened in the past. You shouldn’t go back too far in time, because that was really a different period.”

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