Verstappen reveals text from Vettel predicting he’d break F1 record

Verstappen could equal Vettel’s record of nine consecutive wins from 2013 in Sunday’s Dutch Grand Prix.

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He will start the race from pole position - his eighth of F1 2023 - and looks like he could beat the record outright at Monza next week on current form.

Speaking in the FIA press conference at Zandvoort, Verstappen spoke about how Vettel texted him about the prospect of his record being broken.

“I think after five wins in a row, Seb texted me and said well done with what you are doing, keep it up and you are going to do it,” he said. “But I was like, nine wins in a row is something very impressive and I never thought I would be able to already on eight. 

“So if it’s possible tomorrow, of course I go for it. But it’s not something I have in the back of my head constantly, I’m not in the sport to try and break records. I’m here to win in the moment.”

It wasn’t an entirely straightforward qualifying session for Verstappen, with changeable conditions catching a number of drivers out.

Verstappen saved his best lap for the end, beating Lando Norris to pole by over 0.5s.

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Reflecting on qualifying, he said: “It was quite slippery out there, so it was easy to make a mistake or whatever. Especially on the new tarmac, so sector one and three were quite slippery, and especially on the intermediate at the beginning to get the temperature in and get going, so it was a bit difficult and it took a few laps to get it into a rhythm and the tyres up to temperature. 

“And then we were getting close to Q3 and it was drying out, so I initially didn’t think it would be dry enough but with the wind around here and the sun coming out it dried faster than I expected. So I went out on the inter and quickly realised it was drier than I expected and that was the wrong tyre. So we boxed and put the slicks on and that was unfortunate because there was the red flag. 

“But it was still very tricky conditions in Turn 1 and 2 at the time, with just one proper dry line, so it was easy to make a mistake. 

“Then of course we had a bit of a delay and Charles had his moment, so at one point the dry line was becoming a bit wider and that helped a bit. So you still had to get out of your comfort zone a bit on that final lap because it’s still not dry everywhere, but luckily the lap was good.”