Max Verstappen‘s incredible win at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix moved him to the brink of a fourth consecutive Formula 1 title.
The victory extended his lead to 62 points over Lando Norris with three races — a three-week triple header in Las Vegas, Qatar and Abu Dhabi — still to come.
With a maximum 26 points on offer at every grand prix, with 25 for victory and an additional one for a bonus point, and an additional eight on offer at Qatar’s sprint race, there are only 86 points left to play for this season.
One permutation is simple for the Las Vegas Grand Prix: if Verstappen finishes ahead of Norris, he will be the world champion. His lead only needs to be 60 points or greater leaving Nevada.
Norris must out-score Verstappen by three points just to keep the championship alive for Qatar.
In F1 races, points are handed out as follows: 25-18-15-12-10-8-6-4-2-1. For a sprint race, it is 8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1.
Verstappen’s Brazil win — his eighth of the season — guaranteed that he will win any points tiebreaker between himself and Norris, who has won three times. The first tiebreaker in the event of a points deadlock at the end of the season is decided by Grand Prix victories.
Should the championship extend beyond Las Vegas, Verstappen will only need to accumulate 24 points across the remaining three events to win.
In effect, it means Verstappen could finish sixth at the remaining three races and, even without scoring a point in the Qatar sprint, win the title.
The Dutchman has not finished outside the top six at an F1 race this year.
Should Verstappen fail to finish in Vegas or at both of Qatar races, he still has a guaranteed lead over Norris going into the finale in Abu Dhabi.
Should that unlikely scenario occur and Norris win both races with the fastest lap, and the sprint race, he would still be two points down on Verstappen going into the final race, highlighting the scale of the challenge now facing the McLaren driver.
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