- Max Verstappen reminded the world how quick he is in just over half an hour.
- It took the Dutch racer just one lap to overtake more than 60 go-kart drivers.
- Verstappen hunted down 100 drivers in just 14 laps of the 30-lap race.
Plenty of us like to think of ourselves as good drivers, but as Max Verstappen proved over the weekend, there’s a big difference between a multiple-time F1 champion and an amateur go-kart driver. If you want a few tips on how to drive a go-kart fast, take some notes.
Red Bull is no stranger to ambitious challenges and staged the largest go-kart race ever at Silverstone, calling in Max Verstappen to see if he could overtake 100 drivers and win the race after starting from the back of the grid. The race, livestreamed on Disney+ and the ESPN App, was far more entertaining than any recent F1 race.
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As you can probably imagine, putting 100 go-karts on a tight, twisty go-kart track is bound to create some chaos, and that’s exactly what happened. As soon as the lights went green, the amateur drivers gracefully, but slowly, got off the line, all while Verstappen weaved through them with ease. In a matter of moments, he’d passed more than a dozen other karts, and by the end of the first lap, the Dutch driver had overtaken more than 60 drivers.
Under the event rules, any driver Verstappen overtook was immediately eliminated, helping to ensure the planned 30-lap race didn’t have 100 go-karts competing for the entire event.
The Red Bull Racing F1 driver continued to breeze through the field and by lap eight, he was already in the top five and started chasing down the top three drivers, who had pulled out a commanding lead, making the most of the chaos behind. Before long, Verstappen worked his way to the front of the field, needing just 35 minutes to complete the challenge.
“It was great to just be back in a go-kart again and go back to basics, it reminded me of racing back in the day,” Verstappen said after taking victory. “It’s a really beautiful track and well designed and it was a nice touch to be able to get all the data fed through the radio too. I had a great day and it was good to come out with the win!”
