Max Verstappen’s record spell as the world championship leader has ended at the first race of 2025.
The Red Bull driver has not been headed in the championship standings since the Spanish Grand Prix in 2022. Charles Leclerc arrived at that race leading the championship, 1,029 days ago, or just over two years and nine months.Verstappen broke the previous record for longest championship reign during last season. It was held by Michael Schumacher, who led the standings for 896 days.
Coincidentally, both runs were ended by victories for British drivers in McLarens who won a season-opening race at Melbourne. Schumacher finished fourth but went on to win the 2003 title. Verstappen took the chequered flag in second place today, less than a second behind winner Lando Norris.
Schumacher’s spell in the lead ran from the 2000 United States Grand Prix until the first race of the 2003 season, held in Australia. That was won by David Coulthard. During that time Schumacher, driving for Ferrari, scored three of his seven world championship victories.
Verstappen also picked up three titles during his unbroken spell at the top of the standings. He is the first driver ever to spend 1,000 days in the lead of the world championship.
He said today’s race shows Red Bull are not on McLaren’s pace at the moment. “It is what I expected it to be,” he said. “You can see also, in that first stint, we were lacking a little bit of pace compared to McLaren.
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“But it’s still 18 points more than what I had here last year so I’ll take that.”
If Verstappen rebounds to take the title this year, he will emulate another of Schumacher’s feats by winning five consecutive world championships. No driver other than Schumacher has previously achieved this.
Schumacher is one of only two drivers who has won more grands prix than Verstappen. The Red Bull driver has 63 victories, Schumacher 91 and Lewis Hamilton holds the record with 105.
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Esploratore (@esploratore1)
16th March 2025, 10:55
Well, he got pretty damn close to extending it!
Osnola
16th March 2025, 11:14
He still has that record!
But unable to extend it even further.
Jere (@jerejj)
16th March 2025, 11:14
Stat article already on race day is a positive surprise & I wouldn’t mind if this became a norm, but here are what I’d managed to gather thus far:
The top 4 starting order exactly matched the final 2024 round’s starting order.
Andrea Antonelli became the youngest driver to score points on debut.
Last season, Sauber scored their first points only in the penultimate round, while this season, they scored their first already in the opening round, so quite a change.
Isack Hadjar either became the first driver ever or the first in a long time to suffer a DNS on debut, meaning that he immediately has an offset between entries & starts on the stats.
Leo B
16th March 2025, 15:31
Back to normal next week for Max…
Nulla Pax (@nullapax)
16th March 2025, 16:34
Get the boot in early Keith – don’t hold back mate – LOL ;)
Riccard
17th March 2025, 18:28
Verstappen earned his streak, but I’m glad it’s been broken, and I’m glad he’s getting even stiffer competition this time around.
2021 and 2024 were great years for the title fight because others had better cars while he was the better driver. Let’s see how far that dial can move and Verstappen still stay in contention.
If he loses one, I’ll want a front row seat for the comeback season.