Max Verstappen’s 2021 F1 season in statistics

Max Verstappen became World Champion for the first time in 2021 following a season-long duel with Lewis Hamilton. Here’s Verstappen’s 2021 Formula 1 season in statistics!

A STATISTIC FROM EVERY GRAND PRIX

2021 BAHRAIN GRAND PRIX

With pole for the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix, Max Verstappen took pole positions at consecutive races for the first time in his Formula 1 career. This was the first time that Red Bull have taken pole position at the season-opening race since Sebastian Vettel set the fastest time in qualifying for the 2013 Australian Grand Prix. Finishing as runner-up, Verstappen equalled Jackie Stewart’s tally of 43 podium finishes. It put him nineteenth alongside the Scot in the all-time list of most podium finishes.

2021 EMILIA ROMAGNA GRAND PRIX

Max Verstappen won the 2021 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, taking the eleventh win of his Formula 1 career. He became the 30th driver to have won eleven or more races in F1. Verstappen became the sixteenth different driver to win a World Championship race at Imola and the first driver to win at the circuit having started from third on the grid since Ralf Schumacher at the 2001 San Marino Grand Prix. Verstappen won the 2021 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix by exactly 22 seconds. He became the first driver to win with a winning margin that is a whole number since Jochen Rindt took victory by exactly 30 seconds at the 1970 Dutch Grand Prix. Verstappen is the first driver to do it since F1 started timing to thousandths of a second.

2021 PORTUGUESE GRAND PRIX

With second place, Max Verstappen recorded his 45th top three finish in Formula 1. It put him eighteenth in the all time list of most F1 podiums, level with Carlos Reutemann. Rubens Barrichello, David Coulthard, Valtteri Bottas and Gerhard Berger were now the only non-champions with more podium finishes than Verstappen. This was Verstappen’s 100th race start with the Red Bull team.

2021 SPANISH GRAND PRIX

Max Verstappen recorded Red Bull’s first front row start at the Spanish Grand Prix since 2011. After setting the fastest time in Q2, Verstappen ensured that he would remain one of only two drivers to reach Q3 on every appearance at the Spanish Grand Prix. Michael Schumacher is the only other driver to achieve the feat since the current qualifying system was introduced in 2006. With second place, Verstappen became the sixth driver to record five podium results at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

2021 MONACO GRAND PRIX

Max Verstappen took victory in the 2021 Monaco Grand Prix, claiming the twelfth victory of his Formula 1 career. He is the 35th different driver to win in Monaco in the principality’s 67-race tenure on the F1 calendar. Verstappen became the first driver to win the Monaco Grand Prix in a car with a Honda-badged engine since Ayrton Senna in 1992. As a result, Verstappen took the lead of the Drivers’ Championship for the first time in his career. He’s only the fifth driver to lead the title race since the start of the V6 hybrid era, and the first Red Bull driver to lead since Sebastian Vettel at the end of the 2013 season.

2021 AZERBAIJAN GRAND PRIX

Despite qualifying in the top three for a fifteenth consecutive race and leading for much of the race, Max Verstappen crashed out just a handful of laps before the end of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix due to a tyre failure. He equalled Daniil Kvyat as the driver with the most retirements at Baku City Circuit, this being his third at the circuit. Despite not finishing, Verstappen maintained the championship lead and recorded the Fastest Lap of the race – the 70th time a Red Bull driver has done so.

2021 FRENCH GRAND PRIX

After taking the fifth pole of his career on Saturday, recording Pirelli’s 250th pole in F1, Verstappen won for the thirteenth time, equalling David Coulthard as the driver to have the second-most wins without winning the title. Verstappen became the twelfth driver to win at Circuit Paul Ricard, and the first to do so in a Honda-powered car since Alain Prost in 1989.

2021 STYRIAN GRAND PRIX

Max Verstappen became the first driver to record three pole positions in 2021, putting Red Bull on pole at their home race for the first time. On Sunday, he recorded the fourteenth win of his career and his third in Austria. Verstappen is only the second driver, after Alain Prost, to record three wins in the country. The 2021 Styrian Grand Prix was won by a margin of 35.743 seconds; the largest win margin at the Red Bull Ring since the circuit’s return to the calendar, and the largest win margin in Formula 1 since Nico Rosberg won the 2016 Chinese Grand Prix by 37.776 seconds.

2021 AUSTRIAN GRAND PRIX

For the second week in a row, Max Verstappen put Red Bull on pole position at their home event. He went on to win and become the 21st driver to record three successive wins. More impressively, Verstappen became the first driver to win three F1 races in the space of only 15 days. Having also won the Styrian Grand Prix the week before, Verstappen became the first driver to win consecutive Formula 1 races held in the same country since Damon Hill won the 1995 and 1996 Australian Grands Prix. Verstappen is one of only five drivers to achieve this feat, the others being Stirling Moss, Alan Jones and Michael Schumacher.

Verstappen became the first driver to win four Formula 1 races in Austria. Alain Prost previously held the record for most wins in Austria, having taken a third Austrian Grand Prix victory in 1986. Verstappen recorded the 50th podium finish of his career, becoming the seventeenth driver to reach that milestone. As well as being the youngest driver to reach 50 podium finishes in Formula 1, Verstappen also becomes the youngest driver to record a Grand Slam in the sport. Verstappen is the 25th driver to take pole, win, set the fastest lap and lead every lap. The Dutchman has led the last 144 laps of Formula 1 racing – the equal-15th longest streak of laps led in Formula 1 history. It ties him with Hamilton’s longest streak of consecutive laps led in F1. Verstappen is less than half way to equalling Alberto Ascari’s record, set in 1952.

2021 BRITISH GRAND PRIX

After becoming the first ever winner of F1 Sprint Qualifying, Max Verstappen secured three points for pole position at the British Grand Prix. He provided Red Bull with their first pole at Silverstone since 2011. After suffering the third biggest impact of the V6 hybrid era, Verstappen failed to score in the race itself. His points from Sprint Qualifying made him the first driver to score points at a Formula 1 race despite not completing a single lap of the Grand Prix. Verstappen’s retirement made this the fourth race in a row held on 18th July in which a driver has retired on the first lap of the Grand Prix, as well as the third consecutive race on this date in which the polesitter has retired.

2021 HUNGARIAN GRAND PRIX

Max Verstappen finished the Hungarian Grand Prix in ninth place. That’s the worst result for the driver starting third at the Hungaroring since Felipe Massa retired from the 2008 race.

2021 BELGIAN GRAND PRIX

Due to the red flag procedure, the official classification of the 2021 Belgian Grand Prix shows that it ran to just one lap, with Max Verstappen victorious in a time of three minutes and 27.071 seconds – making it the shortest ever F1 race. This was Verstappen’s sixteenth race win, tying Stirling Moss as the driver to have won the most races without winning the title. Moss’ record has been broken four times previous – all four times being by drivers who went on to win the title. Verstappen is the 28th different driver to win at Spa, and the first to do so in a Honda-powered car since Ayrton Senna in 1991.

2021 DUTCH GRAND PRIX

After taking pole position on Saturday – becoming the 35th driver to record ten or more poles in their Formula 1 career – Verstappen took his first home win at the 2021 Dutch Grand Prix. Verstappen made the Netherlands the twelfth nation to have a home winner in Formula 1. It made 2021 the first season to have two home winners since 2014. Nico Rosberg was the last driver other than Lewis Hamilton to take a home victory, doing so at the 2014 German Grand Prix. The 2021 Dutch Grand Prix marks the 75th occasion on which a driver has taken a Grand Prix win on home soil in World Championship history, and Verstappen is the 35th different driver to take a home win in Formula 1.

After leading the first nine laps of the race, Max Verstappen became the nineteenth driver to have led 1,000 racing laps in his Formula 1 career. Stirling Moss is the only other non-champion to achieve that feat. 469 of Verstappen’s 1,000 laps led to that point came in the 2021 season, while over half were in the previous 17 races. Talking of Moss, Verstappen surpassed the British driver as the non-champion with the most F1 victories. Meanwhile, with his 52nd podium finish, Verstappen overtook Mika Hakkinen as the driver with the fifteenth most podium results in Formula 1 history. This was the 100th Grand Prix in which Max Verstappen scored points. He is the seventeenth driver to score at 100 races.

2021 ITALIAN GRAND PRIX

After becoming the first Red Bull driver to start from pole position at the Italian Grand Prix since Sebastian Vettel in 2013, Max Verstappen failed to finish the race following a collision with Lewis Hamilton. This was Verstappen’s second consecutive Monza retirement and he became the first polesitter to retire from the Italian Grand Prix since Lewis Hamilton crashed out in the closing stages of the 2009 Italian Grand Prix.

2021 RUSSIAN GRAND PRIX

With second place, Max Verstappen equalled Red Bull’s best Russian Grand Prix result. Verstappen also finished second at Sochi in 2020. Verstappen is only the sixth driver to finish on the podium having started 20th on the grid. Picking up an engine penalty for this race, Verstappen failed to set a lap time in Q1. He therefore recorded his first Q1 exit since the 2019 Italian Grand Prix. It was the first time he had not qualified in the top three since the 2020 Italian Grand Prix. This was the sixth time in his career that Verstappen qualified on the back row of the grid.

2021 TURKISH GRAND PRIX

Max Verstappen finished as runner-up in the Turkish Grand Prix, recording his 54th podium finish. That saw him equal Niki Lauda for fourteenth in the all-time list of most podium finishes in Formula 1. With Verstappen finishing on the podium and Lewis Hamilton finishing fifth, Verstappen re-took the lead in the Drivers’ Championship. He led by six points, meaning that the championship had been led by eight or fewer points at all of the last seven races – the first time that had happened since the first seven races of the 2012 season.

2021 UNITED STATES GRAND PRIX

Max Verstappen took pole position for the 2021 United States Grand Prix, recording the first non-Mercedes pole at Circuit of The Americas since 2013. This was Verstappen’s ninth pole of the 2021 season, meaning that he had recorded three times more poles in 2021 than he did in total before the season began. On Sunday, Verstappen became the fifth driver to win at Circuit of The Americas – and the fourth different driver to do so in the last four races at the track. This was the first win for a Honda-powered car in the United States since Ayrton Senna won for McLaren at the 1991 United States Grand Prix. Following his win, Verstappen led the title race by 12 points – the largest lead held in the Drivers’ Championship since his 32 point lead at the Austrian Grand Prix.

2021 MEXICO CITY GRAND PRIX

Max Verstappen qualified third for the Mexican Grand Prix, failing to set one of the two fastest qualifying times at the track for the first time since 2016. Verstappen won the race, recording the nineteenth victory of his Formula 1 career. It was his ninth win of the season, making this the seventeenth occasion on which a driver has won nine or more races in a single year. Verstappen recorded his third win at the Mexican Grand Prix, setting a new record for most wins at the event in its World Championship history. On his way to victory, Verstappen surpassed Jim Clark’s 53 year old record of most laps led in Mexico.

2021 SAO PAULO GRAND PRIX

Max Verstappen started Sprint Qualifying from the front of the grid but failed to convert that into pole position. Verstappen finished where he started in the Grand Prix, in second place. This was Verstappen’s 57th podium finish, equalling the podium tally of Nico Rosberg. This was the third consecutive Brazilian Grand Prix in which Verstappen has finished in the top two – as well as the fifth consecutive race this year that he has recorded a top two result.

2021 QATAR GRAND PRIX

Max Verstappen finished as runner-up in the 2021 Qatar Grand Prix, recording his 58th podium finish. As a result, he overtook Nico Rosberg for thirteenth in the all-time list of most podium finishes. His result means that he headed to the next race with a mathematical chance of winning the title for the first time.

2021 SAUDI ARABIAN GRAND PRIX

Max Verstappen finished as runner-up for the third race in a row. It’s the first time a driver has recorded three consecutive second place results since Nico Rosberg finished as runner-up at all of the last four races of the 2016 season. Verstappen finished in the top three for the seventeenth time in 2021. He equalled the record for the most podium finishes in a single season. It’s a feat which has been achieved six times previously, once each by Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel, and four times by Lewis Hamilton. With his 59th podium finish, Verstappen equalled Nigel Mansell for twelfth in the list of most F1 podiums.

2021 ABU DHABI GRAND PRIX

Max Verstappen won the 2021 Formula 1 World Championship with his victory at the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. He became the 34th World Champion and the first Dutch driver to win the title. The Netherlands is the fifteenth different nation to have a World Champion. Verstappen became the first non-Mercedes driver to win the title in the V6 hybrid era as well as the first non British or German driver to win the title since Kimi Raikkonen in 2007. Verstappen is the first driver to win the Drivers’ Championship in a Honda-powered car since Ayrton Senna won the title with McLaren in 1991. This was Verstappen’s 20th win, equalling Mika Hakkinen in the all-time list, as well as his 60th podium finish, equalling Nelson Piquet for twelfth in the all-time list.