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Max Verstappen has proven himself to be one of the greatest Formula 1 drivers of all time. That was never more apparent than in 2023.
Perhaps, many F1 fans will look back on that era with boredom and agitation, given how one-sided the title fight seemed to be. Verstappen was utterly dominant in the ground-effect era, racking up four consecutive titles.
The Dutchman was certainly not F1’s most popular figure during this period, but interestingly, now that McLaren have ended his dominance, boos towards Verstappen have turned to cheers. Many fans enjoyed his title fight against Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, which he ultimately lost.
Is this the greatest run ever by an F1 driver?
Jenson Button noticed Verstappen’s rise in popularity as he became the underdog in the championship fight. But as aforementioned, that was not the case a few years ago, and certainly not in 2023, a year that will forever go down in history.
Fresh off winning his second title in 2022 with 15 wins, Verstappen went up another gear with the RB19. He claimed an astonishing 19 victories and was on the podium in all but one race, beating teammate Sergio Perez by more than double his points tally.
No one could come close to the Red Bull driver as he displayed sensational talent throughout the season. Several moments could be picked out as evidence of him being one of F1’s greatest talents, but none stand out more than qualifying in Monaco.
Max Verstappen details his 2023 Monaco Grand Prix pole lap that stands as F1’s greatest final sector ever
The Red Bull driver was battling Fernando Alonso for pole position for the Monaco Grand Prix and was fifth heading into his final run in Q3.
After sector two, he was over two tenths behind the Aston Martin driver. But Verstappen produced what should stand as the greatest final sector in F1 history as he stormed to pole position by 0.084s from Alonso.
Speaking via the Pirelli YouTube channel, he was shown pictures from the weekend at Monaco in 2023, and he detailed how he was able to pull off such a remarkable lap on a track that is historically not one of his best.
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“Yeah, I mean, Monaco is for us, lately has been a bit of a bogey track, I would say.” said Verstappen. “And I mean, that year we were very dominant, but Monaco was not really dominant. I would say we were struggling actually quite a bit.
“And I knew going into that final sector that yeah, I was going faster than my lap time and I knew that I needed more. So I was like, let’s just go full send into the final sector and we either come out of it or we don’t.
“And yeah, luckily we came out of it. And that’s Monaco for you because it’s almost like, you go to tracks where you feel like I’ve really hit 100% of what I think I can do.
“But sometimes in Monaco, it almost feels like you need to give it 105, to almost just risk it all and just see if it sticks or not between the barriers left and right.”
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What Christian Horner said after Max Verstappen’s 2023 Monaco pole lap
The lap even left then-Red Bull team boss Christian Horner stunned. Speaking to Sky Sports after qualifying, he felt that Verstappen had just produced one of his best-ever qualifying laps.
“I think that is one of the best laps he’s ever driven in qualifying,” he said. “When he arrived at the Swimming Pool he was 0.2s behind Fernando.
“Then all the time through that last sector, I think he hit the wall on both sides but carried the momentum and the speed. I could see him gaining the time, I knew it was going to be close and he just did it.
“My emotions are somewhere in the middle. I’m elated for Max with probably the best qualifying lap of his career, and then for Checo (Sergio Perez) unfortunately a mistake too early in Q1.”
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