Max Verstappen makes 'TERRIBLE' joke at Lewis Hamilton's expense after landmark victory

Hamilton en Verstappen tijdens persconferentie na Silverstone — Photo: © LAT Images

Max Verstappen

Verstappen makes 'TERRIBLE' joke at Hamilton's expense after landmark victory

Verstappen was in a jovial mood after stretching his championship lead in Hungary

Joe Ellis

Monday 24 July 2023 14:27

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Max Verstappen claimed his 44th win in F1 at the Hungarian GP which is a significant number in the sport.

It's the driver number of his biggest personal rival Lewis Hamilton, who beat him to pole position by three-thousandths of a second the day before.

Verstappen managed to beat Hamilton off the line and then clear off to win by 30 seconds over Lando Norris, with the Mercedes man dropping to fourth behind Sergio Perez.

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Having hit 44 in Budapest, Verstappen joked that he needed to get off that "terrible" number as soon as possible and take win number 45.

Verstappen: I need 45

Max Verstappen's 33-second win was the biggest winning margin of the season

“Hopefully I don’t stay on 44 (race wins) for too long,” Verstappen said, as per the Independent. “That would be terrible, I need to get to 45 quickly.”

The Dutchman is still considerably far behind Hamilton when it comes to overall wins, podiums and pole positions but he is rapidly rising that list.

He recently surged past Ayrton Senna on the wins column and could theoretically go ahead of Alain Prost and Sebastian Vettel to third in the list by the end of 2023.

That would leave just Michael Schumacher (91) and Hamilton (103) to go and he still has four more years on his Red Bull contract.