Juan Manuel Fangio, Alain Prost, Michael Schumacher, Sebastian Vettel, Lewis Hamilton… and now Max Verstappen: the list of F1 drivers with four or more World Championships is not a long one, but now includes the Dutch driver, after he closed out his fourth straight title in the Las Vegas Grand Prix.
On a weekend where the Red Bull RB20 was far from the fastest car, Verstappen did what he needed to do to see off the challenge of his last remaining title rival, Lando Norris, finishing P5 to Norris’s P6 to take title number four – Norris having needed to outscore Verstappen by three points heading into the race to keep his title hopes alive.
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Reflecting on his fourth title-winning season – which started off with seven victories in the first 10 races, before a 10-race drought between his Spanish and Sao Paulo wins – Verstappen said: “It’s been a long season and of course we started off amazing, it was almost like cruising, but then we had a tough run.
“But as a team, we kept it together, we kept working on improvements and we pulled off the win. Incredibly proud of everyone, what they have done for me… So at the moment I’m just feeling very relieved, in a way, but also proud.”
First appeared on www.formula1.com