Max Verstappen’s top 5 podium places in Formula 1

At the Austrian Grand Prix 2021, Max Verstappen took his second win in a row and fourth place overall at the Red Bull Ring. This also made him the youngest driver to achieve 50 podium places in Formula 1 at the age of 23 years and 277 days. The record was previously held by the four-time champion Sebastian Vettel (25 years, 327 days).

Since joining Red Bull in 2016, Verstappen has been one of the most consistent drivers in the field. He is often the only man who consistently leads the fight against the all-conquering Mercedes and Sir Lewis Hamilton.

Fast and aggressive, the Dutchman can always count on him to jump at any gap that opens up in front of him. Fans who have grown tired of the relentless run of the Silver Arrows see the young Red Bull driver as a bearer of hope. Many even gave him the tip to become multiple world champion.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at some of the best podiums in Verstappen’s career to date:

2016 Spanish Grand Prix

Verstappen was promoted to the Red Bull senior team at the age of 18 after Dani Kyvat was demoted to her “B” team, Scuderia Toro Rosso. The move raised some eyebrows as many felt it was too young to be thrown into the deep end. But he proved all of his critics wrong by winning the Spanish Grand Prix in his very first race with the team!

Verstappen qualified for fourth place on the grid, four tenths of a second slower than his Australian team-mate Daniel Ricciardo. During the race, he briefly lost fourth place to Sebastian Vettel at Turn 1. However, he soon overtook Vettel again and swept around the outside of the German in the long, uphill curve 3.

2016 Spanish Grand Prix

– The two Mercedes collided on the first lap,
– Verstappen won the race on his debut with Red Bull and, at 18 years and 228 days old, was also the youngest driver to ever win the Grand Prix in F1 history. pic.twitter.com/P0x50TLZf4

– Yonas Lodewijk Situmorang (@odikyonas) May 8, 2021

The Mercedes drivers Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton collided with a 1-2 at the end of the first lap and put a Red Bull 1-2 at the head of Ricciardo. As the race progressed, both Ricciardo and Vettel opted for a three-stop strategy. Verstappen was able to take the lead with 22 laps to go, closely followed by Ferrari’s Raikkonen.

The Finn was faster, but although Raikkonen ran most of the last 20 laps within a second of the DRS range, Verstappen didn’t go wrong. Showing maturity beyond his age, he kept the 2007 champion in check until the checkered flag flapped.

At 18 years, seven months and 15 days, he became the youngest driver to ever win a Formula 1 race.

Grand Prix of Germany 2019

The 2019 German Grand Prix was one of the best races of the season and was even voted the race of the decade by Formula 1 fans.

Second on the grid, Verstappen got off to a terrible start as both he and teammate Pierre Gasly struggled to control wheelspin and fell far down. But when his rivals looked for grip on the rain-soaked Hockenheim surface, he was able to hold his own.

His team took a risk, switched to the medium-sized tires before realizing his mistake, and called him back to the pits about rain pads. Since Valtteri Bottas and Charles Leclerc dropped out and hardly made it into the top 10, there was no more challenger apart from the track.

Verstappen mastered the treacherous conditions confidently and won with 7.3 seconds ahead of second-placed Vettel.

Max Verstappen

2019 Brazilian Grand Prix

Verstappen took the second pole position of his career at the 2019 Brazilian Grand Prix. It was a chaotic race with Ferraris Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel suffering flat tires while Valtteri Bottas had to give up with a smoking engine.

Hamilton pitted first with a two-stop strategy to switch to soft tires. Verstappen responded with his own pit stop. Red Bull gave his driver a perfect service, but the traffic hindered him on his way out of the pit lane when he almost collided with Robert Kubica.

The crowd cheered as Verstappen quickly reined in Hamilton before hurtling past his rival. The two fought hard through the DRS zones, and the Mercedes man finally took the lead back on lap 25 with a bold move. However, the Dutchman regained the lead when his tires warmed up and Hamilton radioed his team that he could not keep up with Red Bull’s pace.

After a safety car deployment, Red Bull changed its strategy and brought in Verstappen for new tires. After returning to the fight in second, he soon passed Hamilton outside to regain the lead and win the race.

2016 Brazilian Grand Prix

Another rainy weather race, another Verstappen master class. At the 2016 Brazilian Grand Prix, the Red Bull ace qualified fourth for a race that started behind the safety car.

When the safety car drove away, Verstappen put it into high gear and overtook Kimi Raikkonen in third. Then he chased Nico Rosberg and passed him in third by going through the Senna Esses.

After Verstappen pitted for the intermediates, there was a disaster, the rain intensified and he had the wrong tires. He dropped to 16th place after pitting again 15 laps to go.

But from then on he showed his class as he put down an excellent recovery run, overtaking 11 drivers and finishing third.

Many have viewed it as one of the greatest rainy weather drives in Formula 1 history, and for some it was the day Verstappen made himself known to the world.

Grand Prix of Austria 2019

Verstappen celebrated his second win at the Red Bull Ring with a breathtaking comeback trip. As with many of his best performances, he was preceded by a misfortune. In this case it was a bad start from second place on the grid after the anti-stall mechanism on his RB15 kicked in and prevented a quick escape.

Verstappen kept his wits about making the first turn and establishing himself in seventh place before overtaking Lando Norris and moving up to sixth on lap 7 and ahead of Hamilton.

On lap 50, Verstappen overtook Vettel in third place and followed Bottas. The Dutchman’s Red Bull was visibly faster than Bottas’s Mercedes, and on lap 56 he overtook Finn when braking into Turn 2 and finished second on Turn 2 to the massive cheers of the fans.

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He won the race and is considered one of the best comeback drivers of his career.

Edited by Sandeep Banerjee

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