Max Verstappen has develop into Components 1 world champion for the fourth time after clinching the 2024 title on the Las Vegas Grand Prix.
Verstappen, 27, is the sixth driver within the sport’s historical past to win a minimum of 4 world titles.
Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton have every received a report seven, with Nineteen Fifties Argentine legend Juan-Manuel Fangio on 5 forward of Alain Prost, Sebastian Vettel and now Verstappen on 4.
Having received each Drivers’ Championship since claiming his first within the controversial finish to the 2021 season, Verstappen now joins Hamilton, Fangio and Vettel in profitable 4 titles consecutively.
Solely Schumacher has achieved a run of 5.
On the again of the most-dominant season in historical past in 2023 when he received a report 19 races out of twenty-two, Verstappen had appeared set to stroll away with the championship once more after claiming seven of this yr’s first 10 wins.
However an sudden Crimson Bull stoop in kind, mixed with McLaren rising because the grid’s most constant front-runner and Ferrari’s personal step ahead for the reason that summer season break, had seen Lando Norris mount a late-season problem.
“It’s been a long season. Of course, we started off amazing, it was almost like cruising but then we had a tough run,” mentioned Verstappen.
“But as a team we kept it together, we kept working on improvement and we pulled over the line.
“I am extremely pleased with everybody, what they’ve achieved for me.
“And to stand here as a four-time world champion is of course something that I never thought was possible. So, at the moment just feeling relieved, in a way, but also very proud.”
However whereas Crimson Bull misplaced the management of the Constructors’ Championship and slipped to 3rd amid sustained struggles for Sergio Perez, Verstappen’s means to maintain scoring robust factors finishes meant his benefit lowered at extra gradual fee from a season-high of lead of 84 factors after July’s British Grand Prix.
Norris had obtained it all the way down to 44 factors profitable the Dash on the Sao Paulo GP earlier this month however the title race decisively turned again in Verstappen’s favour a day later because the Dutchman produced a elegant drive within the rain-hit Grand Prix to win from seventeenth on the grid whereas his McLaren rival faltered to sixth from pole.
Verstappen’s first full-race win in 5 months re-established a commanding lead of 62 factors and meant he would win the title in Las Vegas by ending forward of Norris, which he achieved on Sunday morning by taking fifth within the race – one place forward of his McLaren rival, who struggled for tempo.
Though Verstappen moved as much as second behind final race winner George Russell within the early phases of the race, he was shuffled off the rostrum to fifth within the lengthy second stint on arduous tyres after being overtaken by Lewis Hamilton after which the Ferrari duo of Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc.
Extra to observe…
