After securing his second World Drivers Championship title at the Japanese Grand Prix a week ago, it prompted the question of what are Max Verstappen's best drives in his F1 career. Here are some that are obvious standouts and others that will make you think differently but here are my top 10 Max Verstappen drives.
1: Formula 1 Honda Japanese Grand Prix 2022
After securing pole position by just 0.010 of a second from his championship rival Charles Leclerc, the last thing that Verstappen would have wanted to see was a wet race even though he excels in those sorts of conditions. After an early red flag after Carlos Sainz crashed and with a 2-hour red flag period for the rain, the race restarted and then Verstappen just took off. He took a truly dominant race win ahead of team-mate Sergio Perez and Charles Leclerc after the Monegasque driver received a 5-second penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage by 27 seconds in just 28 laps. Throughout the race, it was unclear what points would be awarded as some commentators thought it would only be half points instead of full points. As per the regulations full points were awarded which meant that Verstappen won the title but he only found out in the interviews after the race.
“I’m just very happy that we got to race at the end. It was raining quite heavily and it was just really tough for us to drive. But luckily, we got quite an amount of laps in and the car was flying in the inter conditions as well. I’m very pleased to win here, but also very happy to see all the fans and that they stuck around,”
To win by 27 seconds in 28 laps is astonishing in those conditions, Perez was no-where near Verstappen's and Leclerc's pace at the beginning of the "sprint" race but the Ferrari has become a tyre eater which allowed Verstappen to pull away and for Perez to close him down and force him into an error. People will have differing opinions on what has been Verstappen's best drive but for me, nothing will beat that Japan drive.
2: Formula 1 Grande Premio Do Brasil 2016 (Brazilian Grand Prix)
Even though he didn't win the Brazilian Grand Prix in 2016, we saw what the kid could do in wet conditions in the Red Bull. Starting P4 instantly overtook Kimi Raikkonen on the brakes into turn 1, he certainly would have got eyebrows raised. He narrowly avoided Raikkonen when the Finn aquaplaned off on the pit straight. Verstappen then made a move on the outside of turn 3 in Nico Rosberg by taking a wider line compared to the German, it was bold, it was brave, and it was a superb overtake in the wet. Lap 38 and he nearly threw it all away when he lost control of the RB12, he immediately went on the brakes but he was still heading toward the barrier he somehow judged it just perfectly to release the brakes and avoid the barrier. Verstappen was just incredible in those conditions, he just loved finding grip in areas that others wouldn't dare to go. He made moves on Perez and Sebastian Vettel by doing that technique which was breathtaking and rightfully deserved his podium finish.
This was the start of seeing what Verstappen could do in the wet conditions and well he took to it like a duck to water. You can see just what a talent he is in the wet conditions, after briefly losing the lead at the start of the Japanese Grand Prix, Verstappen just went around the outside of Leclerc like it was nothing.
3: Formula 1 Heineken Grande Premio Do Brasil 2019 (Brazilian Grand Prix)
Verstappen just has a love affair with Brazil and although 3-years earlier he was displaying incredible car control in the wet he was now showing the raw speed that he has on a track that typically wouldn't favour Red Bull compared to Mercedes. Starting from pole position, he was under pressure to not be undercut by the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton and in doing so set a sub-2-second pitstop before almost being collected by the Williams of Robert Kubica which hurt the Dutchman. It only took a lap to get back into the net race lead after Leclerc was holding up Hamilton and he was late on the brakes which made it an even better overtake. On lap 54 the safety car was deployed after the engine in Valtteri Bottas's car decided it wouldn't want to go any further, Red Bull went aggressive by pitting both cars for the soft tyres which turned out to be a blinder of a strategy call by Hannah Schmitz and her team back at Milton Keynes. Lap 60 and at the restart Verstappen went all the way around the outside of Hamilton to once again retake the race lead and this time held onto it till the chequered flag.
“Lewis was very quick so I had to keep pushing all the time with the strategy. He kept pitting earlier so we had to be really on top of our pit stops. Two times we had a good move with him and that, all the time, brought us into first and from then I could control the race with the tyres I had. Unbelievable. It was a lot of fun and of course a great race.”
The reason behind having this as his third-best drive is that it showed the aggression behind the wheel to pull off the overtakes and also his car control in wheel-to-wheel combat with Hamilton in particular while making no mistakes compared to past years when he would have ended his race by going for a gap that would always be closing.
4: Formula 1 BWT Grosser Preis Der Steiermark 2021 (Styrian Grand Prix)
One of Max's most dominant race wins in his F1 career, leading from pole position the young Dutchman lead every single lap to claim his 14th career victory. Verstappen was in a league of his own with Mercedes unable to come close to his pace. The only time's something could have gone wrong for him were at the race start and the pitstops. It was looking like a comfortable win until a pit of nervousness started to creep into the car when Verstappen was complaining about a BBW (Brake-by-Wire) issue caused by braking on the kerbs at turn 10. Verstappen crossed the line 35-seconds ahead of Hamilton, even though the Brit did make a late pitstop to take away the fastest lap point. He was so dominant in fact that he lapped everyone up to Lando Norris in P5. It was a good starter for what was a doubleheader for the team at their home event.
“Straight away I felt good balance in the car and it was good to manage the tyres basically from the start. I felt like also until the end I always had tyres left. They pitted one lap earlier than us, we reacted to that and we just kept on going, trying to hit our lap times, and that worked really well today.
“It’s very positive but of course, we have to show it again next week. We’ll definitely have a look at what we can do better, but I’m looking forward to next week"
The reason for this being his 4th best career drive was that he showed his dominant race pace, as mentioned by lapping everyone up to P5 while never really being under pressure from drivers behind. If you were to ask a driver what sort of race they would like, then I'm sure they would all ask for ones that Verstappen had around the Red Bull Ring.
5: Formula 1 Mercedes-Benz Grosser Preis Von Deutschland 2019 (German Grand Prix)
I'm probably doing Verstappen's German Grand Prix victory dirty by not putting it higher on the list of his greatest drives and that would be fair to say given everything that he had to deal with. It's no secret that when there is a wet race, Red Bull seems to struggle off the start and it was the same case at Hockenheim after picking up a handful of wheelspin. Verstappen was one of the early takers for slick tyres but went different to his competitors by going onto the medium tyres which he struggled to warm up on the out-lap and resulted in a 360 in the final sector and that was the only drama that would happen in his race. It was a case of being on the right tyre at the right time, so it was no surprise that teams used softs and intermediates.
To master those conditions after getting a shocker of a start is always impressive especially when you have other drivers making mistakes. You had Leclerc get beached in the gravel after losing the rear end at the penultimate corner, Hamilton went off at the same area and damaged his front wing and Bottas who crashed on the exit of turn 1. It was one of Verstappen's greatest wins in his career and it is one that he should cherrish.
6: Formula 1 BWT Grosser Preis Von Osterreich 2021 (Austrian Grand Prix)
Going into the second race at the Red Bull Ring, Verstappen's dominance continued and was even more dominant than the first. Starting from pole position, Verstappen was never under any pressure even from the McLaren of Norris who was doing his mate a favour by holding up Hamilton in the opening 20 laps by which time he was 9 seconds off the lead. Verstappen's lead was so big that in the latter stages of the race he was able to pit for a second time and still come out ahead of Bottas with a 7.2-second gap and the gap just grew from there to an 18-second gap at the finish line. Verstappen was delighted with the victory and even declared that it was even better than last week to cement himself as a championship challenger.
“It's incredible, to be honest. The car was on rails. I mean on every tyre set we put on, it was really enjoyable to drive. I’m a bit amazed myself how today went; I didn’t expect it to be like this. Incredible job by everyone to deliver something like this. Of course, when you go into the weekend everybody sees you as the favourite, but it’s never easy to actually always deliver what we did today."
The reason for this being his 5th best career drive was that he showed his dominant race pace, he was so dominant that when you can take an extra pitstop then you know you have had a good race and it's not very often that can happen unless you're on top of your game.
7: Formula 1 Gran Premio De Mexico 2018 (Mexican Grand Prix)
The high altitude tracks were always a strong point for Red Bull and that was the same again for the team to follow up with back-to-back wins at the Mexican Grand Prix, after winning 12 months earlier. Understandably frustrated by missing out on pole position by 0.026 of a second by team-mate Daniel Ricciardo, he channelled all of that frustration to put in a dominating display to win the race from Sebastian Vettel by nearly 18-seconds. The only fear occurred when Ricciardo suffered an engine problem but the race was plain sailing for Verstappen and Red Bull.
"The start was the key… I was really determined to win last night and luckily we did that. Amazing job by the team as well. We had the right tyres available and the car was working really well. It was a shame to lose Daniel, I think we could have had a one-two or at least two cars on the podium. And of course then afterwards you want to make sure that yours doesn’t retire. [Now] I’m going home so really happy about that.”
To go from frustration on Saturday to victory on Sunday shows a real strength of character mentally to put that to one side in a season where he was getting criticism for on-track incidents, he remained defiant in his approach and Mexico we saw that defiant attitude come out on top on a track that suits his driving style and the philosophy of the car.
8: Formula 1 Gran Premio De Mexico 2017 (Mexican Grand Prix)
As mentioned for the 2018 Mexican Grand Prix, if were any tracks that would suit Red Bull it was the high-altitude races and once again Verstappen was in a league of his own. He missed out on pole position by under a tenth of a second to Sebastian Vettel but going into the race Verstappen would have known that with Vettel in a title battle with Lewis Hamilton he couldn't afford any issues going into turns 1,2 and 3 however that's not how it turned out as Verstappen pushes his way through Vettel, which leads to Hamilton and Vettel making contact. Hamilton suffered a puncture while Vettel suffered front wing damage and was forced to pit. Other than the first opening few corners, Verstappen had a straightforward race and ended up winning by nearly 20 seconds ahead of Valtteri Bottas.
Again to miss out on pole by a small margin would have caused some frustration with the Dutchman and he was brave at the first couple of corners with drivers who had everything to lose in the sense of the world championship. So to be able to do what he did at turn 1 shows that he is willing to do whatever it takes to get to the front of the pack and then just clear off into the sunset was incredible but it's no surprise though given what he achieved up to that point.
9: Emirates Formula 1 70th Anniversary Grand Prix 2020
It was surprising the instant improvement from the British Grand Prix and the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix a week after each other. Red Bull was nowhere at the British Grand Prix but instantly they were the fastest team even though there weren't any differences other than the tyres provided by Pirelli. Verstappen had the perfect response to his frustrating race at Silverstone the week before, he qualified from Q1 on the hard tyres before qualifying in P4 behind both Mercedes drivers and Nico Hulkenberg (who was standing in for Perez who had to miss due to COVID-19). Verstappen on race day though was in a league of his own managing the tyres on all the stints. Starting on the hard tyre, he instantly jumped Hulkenberg at the start. On lap 11 Verstappen was told to drop back from the Mercedes duo, something that he rightfully hit back at and it was a call that would pay dividends later on in the race just as both Mercedes were suffering from blisters on their tyres. Verstappen would pit nearly 14 laps later than the Mercedes and would do a short stint on the medium compound tyres and switch back to the hards for the final stint.
“I didn’t see it coming! But after the first stint, it seemed like we were really good on tyres. Of course, then there was a question mark on how Mercedes is going to go on that hard tyre. We had a lot of pace in the car, I didn’t really have a lot of tyre issues, we just kept pushing.
An incredible result to win here, we had a great day, everything worked out well, we had the right strategy, everything was running smooth and I’m incredibly happy to win”
This showed that Verstappen was able to follow closely to other cars without destroying his tyres. It also showed a side of Verstappen that newer fans of the sport wouldn't have seen before which is how he was managing the tyres when his competitors were struggling just a handful of laps into the stint.
10: Formula 1 Rolex Belgian Grand Prix 2022
Starting towards the back of the pack due to an engine penalty, everyone would have thought that a place on the podium was the best he could have done but to go and win the race was something that quite frankly everyone would have written off, and that the win would have been between Carlos Sainz and Perez but after all this is Max Verstappen we are talking about. Yes everyone is going to mention that Red Bull has the fastest car this year which isn't wrong but you also need to have a fast driver behind the wheel. Even though Verstappen got pole position in qualifying, come race day once the FIA released the starting grid Verstappen was down in 14th place, and by lap 18, once all the pitstops had been done, he overtook Sainz for the lead and just drove away to win the race by nearly 18-seconds.
"It was quite a hectic first lap to try and stay out of trouble," So many things were happening in front of me. But once we settled in after the Safety Car, the car was really on rails, we picked the right places to pass people and we could look after our tyres and that is how we made our way forward.
"After that, once we were in the lead it was all about managing everything – but this whole weekend has been incredible. It’s been a weekend I couldn’t imagine before, but I think we want more of them, so keep working hard"
This showed the determination that Verstappen has to always win no matter the circumstances. The measured approach Verstappen has for overtakes as well is something that has changed during his years in the sport compared to when he first came in and he would do a risky overtake that could always lead to a crash whereas now you never see a desperate lunge.
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