Verstappen ‘motivated’ by Hamilton’s F1 win record

Max Verstappen says he's 'motivated' to beat Lewis Hamilton's Formula 1 records after the Mercedes driver claimed a record 92nd career win to move one clear of Michael Schumacher.

Hamilton dominated the Portuguese Grand Prix at Portimao to move 77 points clear of teammate Valtteri Bottas in the drivers' championship and is now within touching distance of a seventh world title.

At only 23, Verstappen has nine victories to his name while never having a car capable of challenging for the drivers’ title.

Speaking after finishing third in Portugal, Verstappen revealed that Hamilton jokingly told him he’s trying to get as many victories as possible before he retires to ensure the Dutchman has to go until he’s 40 years old to break his records.

“We were just talking about it… Lewis said that he keeps pushing because he wants to set it very high so I have to try and work hard to get there,” Verstappen said. “It’s amazing, what can you say? It’s an incredible achievement - 92 victories. I don’t think it stops there.

“I think it will go well over 100. He’s pushing me to go until I am 40 years old or something. It’s a good motivation as well. It’s incredible. It looks like he’s going for his seventh world title so it’s just very impressive.

“Everybody knows he’s very quick but I think what has been also been a very strong point is that he’s very consistent and he rarely makes a mistake, that’s why he got to these numbers so quickly. It’s very impressive.”

The opening lap was chaotic for Verstappen as he lost several places including a collision with the Racing Point of Sergio Perez at Turn 4.

Reflecting on the opening lap, he said: “It was quite eventful the first two laps. The start itself was quite OK. I had a good draft down into Turn 1. It was quite low grip into Turn 1 so I had to go a little bit wide. It was so hectic honestly the first lap, Turn 3 I had to go a bit wide.

“I think I was behind Lewis but I had Sergio next to me, he was going around the outside of Turn 4. I don’t know, he just didn’t leave enough space so basically took himself out while I was driving on the normal line. Luckily I had no damage. Then of course, you lose a bit of momentum and then I had Charles and Carlos behind, so I had to defend, I locked up a bit then I had to go wide. It was a disaster.”