Red Bull athlete and four-time Formula 1 world champion started 101st at Silverstone and cleared the largest go-kart race ever staged in 35 minutes
LONDON, Sept. 17, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Red Bull athlete Max Verstappen (Netherlands) overtook all 100 challengers in Red Bull’s Max vs 100, the largest go-kart race ever staged, completing the task on lap 14 of 30 at Silverstone. The four-time Formula 1 world champion started 101st on a grid built specifically for the event and cleared the field in 35 minutes, streamed live on Disney+ and the ESPN App.
Under the race rules, a driver was eliminated the moment the rear of Verstappen’s kart drew level with the front of theirs. The field included Red Bull athletes, content creators, streamers, journalists and fans selected from around the world. Race Director and track designer David Terrien laid out a temporary Silverstone circuit to accommodate the 100-kart field.
The opening lap decided half the race. Two minutes in, Verstappen was running 37th, and 63 drivers, more than half the field, had been eliminated without completing a lap.
Pole-sitter Jacky Martens, a Dutch Formula 1 journalist, YouTuber Zac Alsop and Red Bull Ford Powertrains technician Lewis Osler built a lead of around 12 seconds. Verstappen took three seconds a lap out of that gap, then cleared Alsop and Osler in one corner before passing Martens to finish the race.
“When I went to the grid and I saw where I had to start, with 100 karts in front of me, I was a little bit worried,” Verstappen said. “After my first lap, with all the carnage, I did think, ‘Okay, we have got this under control!’ Once I started getting into a rhythm, was able to overtake them one-by-one and saw the gap closing, that was really exciting.”
Martens finished second and Osler, a technician from Verstappen’s own team, finished third. Alsop was fourth and off-road motorcyclist Pol Tarrés fifth. Red Bull athlete Max Verstappen set the fastest lap of the race at 2m 20.673s, more than 2.6 seconds quicker than Martens’s 2m 23.327s, and passed a driver every 21 seconds on average.
Presented by BAFTA Award-winning comedian Mo Gilligan, Red Bull’s Max vs 100 is available to watch again on Disney+ globally and on the ESPN App for ESPN Unlimited subscribers in the U.S., with a broadcast on ESPN2 at 19.00 ET.
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