Max Verstappen heads to Singapore Grand Prix with second world title within his grasp

Next stop Singapore and Max Verstappen’s first chance to win the 2022 drivers' world championship.

If the Dutchman’s first title here in Abu Dhabi barely 10 months ago was (and remains) one of the most hotly debated in the sport’s history, this is a very different story.

Even Lewis Hamilton fans would probably accept the Dutchman has been the best driver this year.

And not because he had the fastest car. In fact, statistics indicate Ferrari have had the edge on outright pace but the Red Bull were usually better come race day.

After all, the red race machines have started from pole 10 times in 16 races but won just four times.

The world champion, on the other hand, has started at the front just five times but won 11 Grands Prix. By those parameters he has been masterly.

It’s remarkable that he now leads by 116 points considering the way the season started with two dnfs in three GPs as Charles Leclerc charged to a 34 point advantage.

The fourth round when the tables turned at Imola was to encapsulate the season to come: Verstappen impregnable, Ferrari and Leclerc horribly flawed.

This season the story is as much about Maranello throwing away a championship as Red Bull winning one.

Leclerc fumbled an easy win in France and let more easy points go before that at Imola. Then there have been reliability issues and, perhaps worst of all, woeful strategy calls.

While opprobrium has been piled on the Scuderia and it’s boss Mattia Binotto, the critics seem to have forgotten where the team came from.

Ferrari started the season on the back of one of the worst slumps in its history. They had not won since Singapore two and half years before. From that prism the turnaround is remarkable.

Red Bull's Max Verstappen celebrates on the