Brundle on Verstappen breezing past Perez: “As if he was in a different car”

Verstappen overcame a penalty as he fought back from sixth place on the grid to claim his eighth consecutive victory in Belgium and continue his romp towards a third straight world title. 

It was another crushingly dominant display from the Dutchman, who made light work of overtaking the likes of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc, before he went sailing past teammate Perez to move into the lead on Lap 17. 

Analysing Verstappen’s commanding performance in his latest column for Sky, Brundle made a comment that he acknowledged will feed conspiracy theorists. 

“Perez in the other Red Bull was 22 seconds behind, such was Verstappen's command over his ever-willing car,” Brundle wrote. 

“When Max caught Sergio it was as if he was in a different car (that one is for the conspiracy theorists to seize on) because he was able to take tighter lines and still get better exit traction. 

“He's found a way to carry speed while continuing to babysit the Pirellis. It's a touch, feel, and finesse that's very difficult to learn and achieve in my experience.” 

Verstappen heads into the F1 summer break holding a whopping 125-point lead over Perez in the championship. 

However, the two-time world champion’s weekend was overshadowed by a series of awkward team radio exchanges with Red Bull race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase. 

Verstappen snapped at Lambiase in an expletive-filled rant after narrowly reaching Q3 during Friday qualifying, a reaction that Brundle feels was “telling”. 

He wrote: “It was telling that, despite his very commanding championship lead, he was quite upset on the radio about how that all played out, although his friend and engineer Gianpiero Lambiase firmly put that into perspective, not for the first time, or the last.”