How Max Verstappen's loss to Sergio Perez in Azerbaijan sparked incredible winning run

That's according to former F1 driver Karun Chandhok, who revealed the information on the Sky Sports F1 podcast following a conversation he had with Max's father Jos.

The race in Baku was the fourth on the 2023 calendar and saw Perez draw level with Verstappen on two wins apiece. But that would be as close as the Mexican driver ever got, as Verstappen would head to the next race in Miami to kick off a winning run that would leave all other challengers in his dust.

Verstappen would finish the season with more than double the points of his Red Bull teammate, ruthlessly locking in his third world championship in the process - a far cry from the result in Baku which reportedly left him "absolutely livid".

"I saw Max's dad Jos Verstappen in Qatar in the evening after Max had clinched the championship and we were chatting about the season," Chandhok said.

"Then he said to me 'Max was furious after Baku and when he came home, he said to us I am not going to get beaten by him ever again this season.'

"He was absolutely livid and said 'he will not beat me again.' And lo and behold, he was right. It was pretty devastating."

Following the race in Azerbaijan, Verstappen would go on to record 10 straight victories before ultimately finishing the season with a record 19 wins.

Asked what he thought Verstappen's best moment of the season was, Chandhok picked the qualifying lap the Dutchman put together in Japan when he finished more than 0.6 seconds clear of his nearest rival, Oscar Piastri.

"I think my moment is going to be Japan qualifying, that qualifying lap, for me it was one of a driver close to perfection," he said.

"It's right up there with the great [Ayrton] Senna, [Lewis] Hamilton, [Michael] Schumacher qualifying laps of Formula 1 history.

"It's like [Nigel] Mansell '92 at Silverstone. It's one of those laps where, yes, he's in the best car, yes it's a dominant performance but he was eight-tenths ahead of his teammate, six-tenths ahead of the rest of the field.

"I've watched the lap back three or four times trying to find anything really where there was something left on the table and there wasn't.

"The track usage on the entry to Spoon Curve, millimetre perfect from the edge of the grass.

"It was just stupendous and for me that really just summed up the season of a driver completely in tune with a car.

"Don't forget, they came off the back of Singapore, their only loss of the season and the rest of the field had angered the beast.

"We were having this conversation with Anthony Davidson analysing how quickly do we think Max is gonna go purple, purple, purple in every sector and the answer was in his first lap of free practice."

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