Rosberg: Verstappen top 2 in history of all time greats after Monza win
Max Verstappen surprised the entire F1 community with his dominant lights-to-flag win at the Italian Grand Prix last Sunday. According to former F1 champion Nico Rosberg, his performance at the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza places him above all other drivers in the history of the sport bar one.
Red Bull Racing and Verstappen arrived in Italy off the back of a rather deceitful P2 result at Zandvoort, achieved only through Lando Norris' late DNF at the Dutch Grand Prix.
It was expected that McLaren would continue to dominate at Monza much as they had done the entire season, with a streak of five on-the-trot wins achieved in Austria, Silverstone, Belgium, Hungary and the Netherlands.
With Ferrari's 1-2 in FP1 for the Italian Grand Prix it seemed like the prancing horse were in with a shot to snatch an upset win on Sunday. However, McLaren were able to reveal the pace surplus they had in the bag with Norris decisively taking the top spot in FP2 and FP3.
Nevertheless, in the final practice session Verstappen took a daring setup approach that saw him close the gap to McLaren. A gap he managed to overturn completely in qualifying to take pole position by 0.077s ahead of Norris.
Then in the race, the Dutchman ran away with the win, showing blistering pace, pumping fastest lap one after the other, stretching out the gap to his closest pursuer Norris up to 5 seconds before Verstappen made his stop.
Verstappen better than Senna, Fangio and Schumacher
It's this performance former F1 champion turned analyst Nico Rosberg believes sets him above Ayrton Senna, Juan Manuel Fangio and Michael Schumacher, but still behind Lewis Hamilton.
"So Max Verstappen, top five driver of all time in the history of our sport," Rosberg began on Sky Sports' The F1 Show podcast. "And he keeps on showing that which is amazing."
"My list is Hamilton, Verstappen, Senna, Fangio and Schumacher," added Rosberg, who then went on to praise Verstappen for his intelligence when setting up an F1 car, a side to the Dutchman the German was not aware of.
Verstappen revealed new side to him following Italian GP win
"His car [Max Verstappen's] wasn't the best car this weekend. I'm pretty sure of that. What I learned about Max Verstappen is that he's also now becoming, or has been, I don't know, so smart that he actually does such fundamental setup decisions."
"That's also a new facet which I haven't seen so often yet. And that's impressive, because that's probably one of the key ingredients to the win this weekend, was his determination to push through his view on the setup, which was 'we need to take more wing off.'"
Rosberg then highlighted how Verstappen had to fight to get the setup he wanted, since engineers are always guided by simulations, and the Red Bull data, according to the former F1 champion, suggested more rear downforce was required. In the end Verstappen's setup input prevailed which allowed him show his 'magic.'
"He got his way and he puts it on pole with a magical lap or two magical laps, it's just unbelievable, just perfection and then dominates the race with speed which is really awesome," Rosberg concluded.
Read also
Popular on GPBlog
Ferrari icon bothered by Hamilton at Monza: 'I didn't like his attitude'
Audi makes major announcement ahead of 2026 F1 debut
F1 Today | 'Hamilton and Verstappen express MotoGP interest'
