Max Verstappen clinched his second world championship title in last weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix.
In the 73rd running of the world championship he is the 17th driver to become a multiple champion. He is the eighth of those to win his first two titles consecutively. The others are Alberto Ascari, Jack Brabham, Alain Prost, Michael Schumacher, Mika Hakkinen and Verstappen’s current rivals Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel.
Only three other drivers successfully defended titles during their careers: Lewis Hamilton, Ayrton Senna and Juan Manuel Fangio.
He sealed the title with his 12th win of the year, leaving him one shy of equalling the all-time record, with four races remaining. He won three of those rounds last year, at Circuit of the Americas, Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez and Yas Marina.
Just like Vettel in 2011, Verstappen won the title for Red Bull driving car number one at Suzuka, with four races to spare. Only two drivers have clinched titles with more races remaining: Nigel Mansell in 1992 (five races) and Schumacher in 2002 (six).
It was fitting for Verstappen to clinch his second title at Suzuka, the track where he started his first practice session eight years earlier. It delivered the first win for a team other than Mercedes at this circuit since the V6 turbo hybrid era began in 2014.
For the first time in more than a decade, the world championship was decided in Japan. However the country has seen more title-deciding races than any other. This was its 14th, 12 of which occured at Suzuka, plus one at TI Aida in 1995 (the Pacific Grand Prix) and Japan’s first world championship race at Fuji in 1976.
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As well as equalling Alonso’s tally of world championships, Verstappen also drew level with him in terms of victories. They both have 32 and are tied for sixth place on the all-time list. Alonso was the only driver other than Verstappen to officially lead a lap of Sunday’s race. It was the first time he’s headed the field since last year’s Hungarian Grand Prix.
Verstappen took the 18th pole position of his career the day before, drawing level with Charles Leclerc once again, as well as Mario Andretti, Rene Arnoux and Kimi Raikkonen. There was just one hundredth of a second between the occupants of the front row, the narrowest margin since last year’s Portuguese Grand…
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