Max Verstappen’s imperious march to second F1 title is a testament to his mastery

Dominant and imperious, there was an unmistakable air to how Max Verstappen secured his second Formula One world championship that had familiar echoes of the greats who have indelibly made their mark on the sport. This season has belonged to Verstappen who delivered with the command and control of a champion, with an almost untrammelled confidence and ease, yet it was a title for which he most assuredly had to work.

With victory at the Japanese Grand Prix, Verstappen and his Red Bull team have sealed the title with four races to go, a remarkable achievement his team will celebrate, even as they await the potentially serious FIA verdict on whether they overspent the budget cap last season.

Still only 25 years old he has taken 12 wins from 18 races to do so, a level of supremacy that has barely allowed his main rival, Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, so much as a look-in. A scenario that had appeared unthinkable when the season began as F1 anticipated a tooth-and-nail scrap between two of its most talented young guns.

In pre-season testing the Ferrari was a rocket ship, quicker than the Red Bull and a mighty platform to attack tracks in Leclerc’s hands. The Red Bull, while fundamentally strong through the corners and with its low-drag design enjoying fearsome straightline speed, opened overweight and with understeer Verstappen had to fight.

Worse still reliability issues beset their opening races with Verstappen enduring mechanical DNFs in the first grand prix at Bahrain and the third in Australia. After Melbourne he was 46 points behind Leclerc and in sixth place, an almighty hurdle to overcome.

Yet he plugged away, eking out the best from the car, showing patience and composure that the engineers would develop it to suit his