Max vs 100: Verstappen Clears the Field in 35 Minutes as Half the Grid Falls Before Lap One

Red Bull’s ‘Max vs 100’ put 101 karts on a Silverstone grid built specifically for the event, and more than half of them were gone before a single lap was completed. Max Verstappen started dead last, at number 101, and needed just 35 minutes to clear the field, catching the final remaining rival on lap 14 of a planned 30. The largest go-kart race ever staged streamed live on Disney+ and the ESPN App, presented by Mo Gilligan, with onboard cameras and radio on every kart catching the moment 63 drivers were eliminated on the opening lap, and the moment, laps later, Verstappen ran out of rivals to chase.

Key Points: Max vs 100

• Max Verstappen started 101st on a grid built for Red Bull’s ‘Max vs 100’, the largest go-kart race ever staged, at Silverstone
• More than half the field, 63 drivers, was eliminated without completing a single lap
• Verstappen caught the final remaining rival by lap 14 of 30, completing the task in 35 minutes, live on Disney+ and the ESPN App
• Podium: Verstappen, Jacky Martens, a Dutch F1 journalist, and Lewis Osler, a Red Bull Ford Powertrains technician
• Verstappen’s fastest lap of 2:20.673 was more than 2.6 seconds quicker than Martens’ 2:23.327, the next fastest lap
• Oracle Red Bull Racing’s pre-event simulation predicted around 40 minutes for Verstappen to clear the field. The real time was 35

The First Corner Wipes Out Half the Field

Seen from above, 101 karts stretched back along the Silverstone asphalt in rows, Verstappen in the very last one. Ahead of him sat Red Bull athletes, Red Bull players, content creators, streamers, journalists and fans, most of them driving the circuit only for the second time after Tuesday’s practice and a single qualifying lap earlier in the day.

The opening lap decided half the race before it had properly begun. Verstappen had passed more than ten drivers before he even reached the start line, and at the hairpin the field folded in on itself, karts running into each other and facing the wrong way.

Two minutes in, Verstappen was 37th. Sixty-three drivers had already been eliminated without completing a lap, more than half the field. When the number was relayed to him over the radio, his reply came straight back: “Not a bad first lap then!”

Race director and track designer David Terrien had built the circuit specifically to take a 100-kart field, using a temporary configuration laid out at Silverstone. Going back through the start afterwards, he picked out something less obvious than the chaos around Verstappen.

The Rule That Made Every Pass Final

The elimination rule left no way back in. A driver was out the moment the rear of Verstappen’s kart drew level with the front of theirs. No laps back, no second attempt.

Every pass was final, and the onboard microphones caught the field coming to terms with that one by one as he worked through it. On lap 7, motorsport YouTuber Paky TWC, running sixth at the time, could be heard over the radio asking Verstappen not to overtake him.

He was passed shortly afterwards.

The Final Three Try to Hold Him Off

By the time the chaos had settled, pole-sitter Jacky Martens, YouTuber Zac Alsop and Red Bull Ford Powertrains technician Lewis Osler had built a lead of around 12 seconds while it unfolded behind them.

Verstappen was taking three seconds a lap out of it.

With 54 minutes still on the clock, the race director handed the leading group an extra fast lap. The three used their fast-lap shortcuts together on lap 12, then stopped fighting each other and started driving defensively instead.

It bought them a little time.

On the next lap Verstappen arrived, cleared Alsop and Osler in one corner, then caught Martens to finish the job with 35 minutes on the clock.

Beating Oracle’s Own Model

Verstappen’s fastest lap of the night was 2:20.673. The next best came from Martens at 2:23.327, more than 2.6 seconds slower.

Across the full 35 minutes, Red Bull calculated that Verstappen was clearing a rival every 21 seconds on average.

Oracle Red Bull Racing had also run simulations beforehand to estimate how long the job would take.

Richard Cooke, an Oracle Red Bull Racing engineer, was even more direct about the gap between Verstappen and the rest of the field.

Podium of Everyday Racers

Martens and Osler joined Verstappen on the podium, with the Red Bull Ford Powertrains technician taking third.

Neither Martens nor Osler is a professional racing driver. Both ended the night on a podium with Max Verstappen.

Alsop finished fourth, with Red Bull off-road motorcyclist Pol Tarres fifth. Livestreamer RDJavi, photographer Larry Chen, mountain biker Bernard Kerr and actor Neo Yau rounded out the top ten.

Martens, still processing finishing second to a four-time World Champion, found a reason for it closer to home.

Coffee Corner Take

Red Bull built the entire concept around one question. Put Verstappen at the back of 100 other karts and see how long they could keep him there.

What happened to the other 100 before he’d really got going deserves almost as much attention as what Verstappen did afterwards. Sixty-three were done inside two minutes, most without completing a lap many on turn 1. For a lot of that field, the race they had practised and qualified for disappeared at the first corner.

Then came the Max Verstappen bit.

Without an F1 championship, strategy call or points haul hanging over it, this was supposed to show the fun side of racing. It did. But once the visor came down, he was still hunting every kart in front of him. Even in a made-for-TV event, that competitive switch was obvious.

Oracle had estimated around 40 minutes. Verstappen finished the job in 35. Terrien’s comments explain more than the stopwatch does. Verstappen was seeing gaps before they had fully opened, picking a route through crashes and traffic while everybody else was reacting to what was already happening.

Martens earned his podium by surviving the first-lap wreckage and being the final challenger Verstappen caught. He lasted longer than the other 99 drivers trying to keep Max behind them.

Whether ‘Max vs 100’ ever felt like a normal race is another question entirely.

It probably wasn’t supposed to but it sure looked fun.