Max Verstappen can equal feat it took Vettel 16 years to achieve at Las Vegas GP
Max Verstappen can equal Sebastian Vettel’s career total for Grand Prix victories at the Las Vegas GP next weekend. The reigning world champion came out on top in Brazil on Sunday, making it 17 wins in total this season.
Verstappen followed up his pole position at Interlagos with a victory from second on the grid in the sprint race before converting his pole into 25 points with a commanding performance in the Brazilian Grand Prix, holding off the threat of in-form McLaren driver Lando Norris.
This victory moved him clear of Alain Prost in the all-time victories list for F1, making it a total of 52 Grand Prix wins since clinching his first on his Red Bull debut at the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix. The Dutchman now heads to Las Vegas just one behind four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel.
Verstappen is already the driver with the most wins for Red Bull in F1. While Vettel does have 53 Grand Prix victories to his name, one of those came for Toro Rosso at the 2008 Italian Grand Prix with a further 14 coming during his stint in the scarlet red of Ferrari.
Click here to join our WhatsApp community to be the first to receive breaking and exclusive F1 news.
Don’t miss… Brundle shows true colours in Machine Gun Kelly and Megan Thee Stallion message[LATEST]
The Red Bull legend will now likely be matched in total career victories by Verstappen in Las Vegas, which is an even more incredible feat when you consider that the Dutchman is still just 26 years of age.
Red Bull’s poster boy extended his own record to 17 race wins in a single season last weekend in Sao Paulo and has the chance to move onto 19 victories should he convert the dominance of the RB19 into wins in the remaining two rounds.
More F1…
Max Verstappen makes ‘dangerous’ comment as Sergio Perez Red Bull future decided[RED BULL]
Ferrari make statement on Charles Leclerc after driver’s Brazilian GP nightmare[FERRARI]
Lewis Hamilton shows true colours in interview after miserable Brazilian GP[HAMILTON]
- Support fearless journalism
- Read The Daily Express online, advert free
- Get super-fast page loading
When he does eventually surpass Vettel’s 53-win tally, only the two legendary names of Lewis Hamilton and Michael Schumacher will stand in his way. The pair of seven-time world champions have 103 and 91 race wins to their names respectively and while the former is still capable of adding more to that figure, he hasn’t taken to the top step since 2021.
Whether or not Verstappen will surpass the two icons of the sport remains to be seen, but the three-time world champion’s 2023 campaign will go down in F1 history. He snatched another record at Interlagos on Sunday, surpassing Alberto Ascari’s 1952 record for the largest percentage of wins in a season.
Source: Read Full Article