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Wednesday 26 July 2023 06:43, UK
Nico Rosberg has lauded Max Verstappen and Red Bull's 2023 dominance of Formula 1 as "legendary" and says the world championship leader's recent performances have been "like art".
Verstappen won Sunday's Hungarian Grand Prix to claim his seventh and Red Bull's 12th successive race wins, with the latter feat breaking a McLaren record that had stood since 1988.
With both Verstappen and Red Bull holding enormous leads in the drivers' and constructors' standings - 110 and 229 points respectively, attention is beginning to turn to how many more records they can break together during the remainder of the season.
Recapping Red Bull's performance in Hungary, 2016 world champion Rosberg told the Sky Sports F1 Podcast: "Let's go with legendary because the Red Bull team broke a legendary historic record of 11 successive race wins by McLaren. They've now got 12, so that's an incredible milestone.
"And Verstappen himself is driving in such a legendary way. I mean, he is driving like one of the best five or six of all time, in line with a (Ayrton) Senna, (Michael) Schumacher, (Lewis) Hamilton and (Juan Manuel) Fangio, and then you start to struggle [to think of more names] already."
Verstappen's individual run has seen him join Rosberg as one of five drivers to win seven successive F1 races, with only Sebastian Vettel, who won nine in a row in 2013, having gone beyond the Dutchman's current streak.
The 25-year-old's recent form has been made all the more impressive by the relative struggles of his team-mate Sergio Perez, who has failed to qualify in the top eight for the last six races, and only twice finished on the podium.
"I mean what an honour to be like in that sentence as part of that," Rosberg said. "Seven in a row, yeah that was quite cool.
"It's incredible really, such a performance from Max. And I said it in the after-race interview with him - that I'm one of the people that can best judge his performance at the moment and the level that he's driving at.
"And yes, it doesn't exactly make for the most exciting races at the very front. But it's so deserving because it's incredible the level that he's at, so close to perfection all the time.
"You've got to compare to the team-mate, look where Sergio Perez is. His best qualifying result in the last six Grands Prix was ninth on the grid, can you believe, with the same car.
"And Sergio is a really good driver, we know that he knows how to drive a racing car. So Max is just extraordinary."
Verstappen will be looking to extend his and Red Bull's streak at this weekend's Belgian Grand Prix, and Rosberg has warned the Dutchman must be careful to avoid becoming complacent.
"It's more a general thing that he generally needs to be careful that he doesn't get complacent," Rosberg said.
"He's in such an incredible flow where no one can touch him, and that's usually when there's a risk of getting complacent and you lose a bit of motivation, so he just needs to be a bit careful of that.
"But I don't see that happening because the state of mind that he has is phenomenal and he's so focused and so in the zone all the time.
"It's like art, it's amazing."
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Thursday July 27
2pm: Drivers' Press Conference
Friday July 28
8.55am: Formula 3 Practice
10am: Formula 2 Practice
12pm: Belgian GP Practice One (session starts 12.30pm)
1.55pm: Formula 3 Qualifying
2.50pm: Formula 2 Qualifying
3.35pm: Belgian GP Qualifying build-up
4pm: Belgian GP Qualifying
6pm: Ted's Qualifying Notebook
Saturday July 29
8.55am: Formula 3 Sprint Race
10.30am: Belgian GP Sprint Shootout build-up
11am: Belgian GP Sprint Shootout
12.40pm: Formula 2 Sprint Race
2.30pm: Belgian GP Sprint build-up
3.30pm: BELGIAN GP SPRINT
5pm: Ted's Sprint Notebook
Sunday July 30
7.25am: Formula 3 Feature Race
8.55am: Formula 2 Feature Race
12.30pm: Grand Prix Sunday - Belgian GP build-up
2pm: THE BELGIAN GRAND PRIX
4pm: Chequered Flag - Belgian GP reaction
5pm: Ted's Notebook
Next up is the Belgian GP, the final race before F1's summer break - watch all sessions of the Sprint weekend live on Sky Sports F1 from July 28-30. Stream the Belgian GP and more with NOW.
