Max Verstappen savours champion feeling after Red Bull’s ‘messy’ start to season

Max Verstappen hailed his fourth successive world crown as his most impressive yet and revealed he did not believe it would ever be possible to join Formula One’s pantheon of greats.

Verstappen finished fifth at Saturday’s Las Vegas Grand Prix, one place ahead of British driver Lando Norris, to emulate Alain Prost and Sebastian Vettel as a four-time world champion. Only Lewis Hamilton and Michael Schumacher (both seven) and Juan Manuel Fangio (five) lie ahead of him in the record books.

“To stand here as a four-time world champion is something I didn’t think was possible,” said Verstappen, 27, after securing the title with two rounds to spare. “In a way, I am relieved, but I very happy, too. It is just incredible and very special.”

Verstappen beat Hamilton in deeply contentious circumstances to claim his maiden championship in 2021 before going on to win his next two titles amid a period of dominance rarely, indeed possibly ever, seen in the sport.

And after he raced to four wins from the opening five rounds, many F1 observers were expecting the Dutchman to run away with the title.

But Red Bull’s superiority suddenly evaporated. McLaren, Ferrari and even Mercedes – who scored their first one-two finish of the season in Nevada on Saturday with pole-sitter George Russell leading home Hamilton – at times boasting speedier machinery.

Since the turn of the century, only Hamilton in 2008 with McLaren, and Verstappen in 2021, have taken the individual honours when their team did not win the constructors’ championship. And on both occasions, McLaren and Red Bull finished runners-up. This season, Red Bull are on course to be only third.

In the other Red Bull, Sergio Perez, who crossed the line 10th on Saturday, is a lowly eighth