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Former F1 World Champion Damon Hill shared a short reaction to Red Bull racer Max Verstappen in securing pole position and the fastest lap in F1 history at the 2025 Italian Grand Prix qualifying. Going into the qualifying session, the Dutch racer looked to be one of the favorites to claim position at the iconic Monza rack alongside Ferrari racer Charles Leclerc and the two McLarens.
While Leclerc, buoyed by the roaring Tifosi, looked to be on pace, he was not able to hook up in his final lap in Q3 and ultimately finished three tenths behind Max Verstappen. The four-time world champion beat Lando Norris in the final seconds of Q3 after he pipped him to the pole position, going on to break the track record.
In a post shared by F1 and Red Bull, Max Verstappen clocked in a time of 1:18:792 on his final timed lap with an average speed of 264.682 km/h, breaking the record previously held by Lewis Hamilton, which he set in the season of 2020.
The former Williams F1 racer reshared the post on his Instagram story and gave a two-word reaction to Verstappen's feat, saying:
"Maxed Out,"
Despite having two victories in 2022 and 2023, it was Verstappen's first pole position at the Monza circuit.
Max Verstappen reacts on breaking Lewis Hamilton's record at Monza
Red Bull racer Max Verstappen said that he was not aware when he crossed the chequered flag that he had broken the lap record of his arch nemesis and Ferrari racer Lewis Hamilton and set the fastest time in history.
In his post-quali press conference, the 27-year-old opened up on the achievement and said of the strengths of the current generation of cars:
"They are pretty decent at high speed. They’re quite quick in a straight line. Of course, the low speed, that’s where we lose out compared to the previous generation. And yeah, on some tracks you can do these lap records now. Honestly, I didn’t even think about that when I crossed the line, but it’s nice.
"It didn’t feel too bad. The cars have been fun. Also, the new tarmac helps around here, kerbing – like the kerbs opened up a little bit. I think the 2020 Mercedes is still quicker if you would put it on the track now, but it’s been good. At some tracks it’s more fun than others."
Mercedes W11 is famously known as the fastest cars in F1 history and was known for its stability platform and for producing great downforce. Despite getting the record in the 2020 edition of the race, Hamilton failed to convert it into a race win, a feat that Max Verstappen would like to avoid on Sunday.
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