Max Verstappen now sits alongside Alain Prost and Sebastian Vettel in terms of Formula 1 world titles. Only Juan Manuel Fangio, Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton are ahead of his four-crown haul.
He sealed his latest with fifth place in Las Vegas with two rounds still to run, the hopes of McLaren’s Lando Norris formally ended after Verstappen’s Brazil brilliance had effectively ended his rival’s long-slim chance of scoring a first championship in this unexpectedly interesting campaign.
But that was only one pivotal moment for Verstappen in a season that surprisingly turned around after his Red Bull squad had made such a strong start.
1. Red Bull initially retains winning ways from 2023, while McLaren starts behind Ferrari
Verstappen picked up where he left off with victory in Bahrain
Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images
Red Bull really picked up when it left off with its total domination of 2023 when the current campaign kicked off back in Bahrain.
But a testing brake fire and drive outage for Sergio Perez heralded how of the leading teams, reliability gremlins have crept most notably at Red Bull, given Verstappen’s later grid penalties for parts changes. And Verstappen having to back out of several moments pushing on the opening day of running suggested, with hindsight’s handy help, that a few things were really amiss. But as Verstappen had finished that running with the biggest first-day-of-testing gap at the front in 11 years, it was little wonder predictions of another walkover abounded.
Come the season opener, Verstappen claimed pole even around Red Bull struggling to nail its set-up in windy conditions – again foreshadowing how things could spiral for the team later in the year. He disappeared in that race, where Carlos Sainz and Leclerc took third and fourth around severe brake problems.
This Red Bull-Ferrari leading pecking order continued through the opening rounds, which meant Sainz was the main beneficiary when Verstappen’s brakes exploded in Australia and Perez failed to win in his absence. This was after Verstappen had won again in Jeddah and before he would also repeat again at Suzuka.
McLaren, meanwhile, was firmly third best of the leading teams through this phase – with Norris even slipping back into Mercedes’ clutches in Jeddah and the Silver Arrows squad showing flashes of better pace too through this part of the year. And Jeddah was a race where Piastri really shone,…
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