Not a season without a championship – that seems to be the motto of the Verstappen family.
Max Verstappen will not be winning the Formula One world championship this season, but the family will not be left without a title this year either.
That was ensured by Max’s father, Jos Verstappen, who secured the Belgian Rally Championship. The title is the first of Jos’s rally career and was wrapped up even before the final round of the season.
Verstappen clinched the championship by finishing third at the East Belgian Rally at the weekend.
Verstappen and his co-driver Renaud Jamoul have dominated the Belgian Rally Championship in commanding style. The pair won the first four events of the season, laying a solid foundation for the title fight.
“We are really happy. We wanted to secure the championship; that was the main goal today,” Verstappen rejoiced.
“You always try to be as prepared as possible and have the right people around you. Renaud is of course very important in all of this,” he continued.
“We enjoy working together and it’s great to fight at the front. The enjoyment is there, and the results follow. We are competitive, which also helps us enjoy ourselves,” Verstappen said.
Verstappen, 53, had already won the Masters Cup title in Belgium last year, but now he has achieved his first overall rally championship.
The former F1 driver switched to rallying in 2022. His first championship came just four years after his rally debut.
Max Verstappen’s title hopes in Formula One, on the other hand, may be slipping away. Having won the last four world championships, Verstappen now sits third in the drivers’ standings, 69 points adrift of championship leader Oscar Piastri of McLaren, with only seven races remaining. Closing such a gap may prove impossible, even for the “Flying Dutchman.”
