Max Verstappen is confidently leading the championship and there is no longer any doubt that the Dutch driver of Red Bull Racing will win the title for the third time this year. And along the way, it can block some of Michael Schumacher’s old records, which have been kept for more than twenty years – the Swiss tabloid Blick recalled this.
These records are rarely remembered and it is possible that Max attaches no importance to such statistics at all, but nevertheless, after winning the recent British Grand Prix, he climbed the podium for the 11th time in a row. Sebastian Vettel once had the same number of podiums in a row, but there are three riders who have more.
This is Fernando Alonso – 15, Lewis Hamilton – 16, and the record since 2002 belongs to Michael Schumacher: on October 13, he won the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka on behalf of Ferrari, and this was his 19th consecutive top three finish.
The record has not yet been broken, but it is very likely that it will fall this year given the scenario in which events develop on the championship courses.
The last time Verstappen failed to reach the podium was at last year’s Brazilian Grand Prix, where he finished sixth.
In the case of the seven-time world champion, the record streak of podiums continued from the 2001 US Grand Prix to the final stages of the following season’s championship, but for the 20th consecutive year Michael failed to finish in the top finish three. : in Australia in March 2003 he took 4th place.
That race in Melbourne was won by David Coulthard in a McLaren, second was Juan Pablo Montoya, who drove for Williams, and third was Kimi Raikkonen, the Scot’s 23-year-old partner. Finn saw the black and white checkered flag just 0.29 seconds ahead of Schumacher.
Their showdown then continued until the end of the 2003 season, and Raikkonen became vice champions, losing just two points to Schumacher.
But there is another record that belongs to the German racer, and Verstappen can already repeat that in Hungary. From the 2000 Italian Grand Prix to the 2001 Malaysian Grand Prix, Schumacher won six races in a row from pole. If Max manages to repeat at the Hungaroring what he has successfully done since Monaco, winning both qualifying and the race, then this will be the sixth such achievement.
A year ago it was he who won the Hungarian Grand Prix, but on Saturday he showed the best time and started from pole George Russell in Mercedes.
Source: F1 News
I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.
