Max Verstappen, World Champion 4 times in a row now, at the start of 2024 did not know that he would have such a difficult year ahead of him, but even after all the difficulties, he prevailed.
Despite having a slow car bogged with problems and some bad strategy calls by the team, Max Verstappen still managed to pull the rabbit out of the hat to win the World Championship this year, and engrave his name among the greatest drivers in Formula 1 to ever achieve such a feat.
These are the top 5 moments which propelled Max to victory.
5th Grand Slam at the Bahrain Grand Prix
Max Verstappen hit the ground flying rather than running.
At the season opener Bahrain Grand Prix, Max Verstappen set the fastest lap, stayed in the lead of the entire race and started on Pole position and won and that too with a huge gap of 22.45 seconds.
This showcased his extreme skill and talent in driving a Formula 1 car. Max Verstappen has a keen sense of how his tires are performing, he manages his tires so perfectly that even after being dealt a bad hand this year, he still managed to win 7 out of the first 10 Grand Prix’s.
2nd place finish at the British Grand Prix
Max Verstappen had started out at the British Grand Prix out of the top 3 in all practice sessions.
Qualifying saw Max Verstappen going off the track and damaging the floor of his car, resulting in a loss of 100 points of downforce.
The current F1 cars are reliant on the Venturi Tunnels on the underside of the car’s floor.
Any damage to these tunnels means a bad impact on the pace of the car. Yet Verstappen drove like he was on fire and placed himself 4th on the grid at the end of qualifying.
This exceptional result catapulted him to 2nd place in the rain torn British Grand Prix, which saw the return of the 2021 rivalry between Hamilton and Verstappen as Max chased down Lewis to last turn at Silverstone.Â
Winning the United States Sprint Race
Max Verstappen, by the time the United States Grand Prix rolled around was chasing points to prevent Lando Norris from taking first place in the Drivers’ Championship. After the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Red Bull had finally improved their car slightly, increasing the pace and allowing Max a fighting chance against Ferrari and McLaren.
In the Sprint Race, Verstappen took the lead of the race from the very first turn and kept that lead till the end and out scored his championship rival Lando Norris by 2 points.
Then in the Grand Prix, Max lost positions to Charles Leclerc who took the lead from Norris and Verstappen although did not have enough pace to win, still managed to defend beautifully against Norris, on a track built wide and long for overtaking, to take 3rd place and outscore Norris again.
Winning the Brazil Grand Prix from 17th
Max Verstappen was set to take a 5-place grid-penalty for a new engine at the Brazil Grand Prix.
With the championship battle heating up and the points gap between Max and Lando down to 47 points, Max had to extract extra pace out of the RB20 and secure a top spot to ensure a lead in the Championship points.
The Brazil Grand Prix was a race which was perhaps the wettest race in F1 after a long time.
Qualifying was postponed to Sunday, where a lot of drivers struggled to even drive in the pouring rain.
For Max Verstappen, it was an especially important qualifying session, he needed to place high to reduce the impact of the grid-penalty, but he placed 12th and was bumped down to 17th.
No one expected him to win, no one expected him to even be in the top 3, but of course the Dutch Lion roared past all others on the grid to take 5th place behind Esteban Ocon before the top 3 pitted to then take 2nd place.
It was pouring showers of luck on Verstappen on that day as a red flag gave him the opportunity to change his tires and then take the lead from Ocon to then finish 1st from 17th.
Brazil Grand Prix was an absolute masterclass by Max Verstappen.
Winning the Championship in Las Vegas and then winning the Qatar Grand Prix
Max Verstappen knew as he came to the Las Vegas Grand Prix that he only needed to finish ahead of Lando Norris to win the 2024 F1 World Championship; and that is what Verstappen did.
Although Max never backed down the entire race and tried to take the win, even leading the race for some laps, but the RB20 was not fast enough for the Ferrari’s and the Mercedes’.
As George took the win with Lewis Hamilton in 2nd and Carlos Sainz in 3rd, Max Verstappen won the Drivers’ Championship in 5th place.Â
Then came the Qatar Grand Prix, where the Red Bull RB 20 had amazing pace.
But due to a very controversial call by the Stewards, which is their forte, Max Verstappen was given a 1-place grid-penalty for impeding George Russel on his slow lap.
Thus, Max started 2nd, with Russel in Pole position, but this time the Dutchman was not letting Russel go by so easily, as Max overtook Russel in the very first corner and then kept the lead of the race from the hands of the angry British driver.
Max Verstappen won the Qatar Grand Prix with a lead of 6 seconds from Leclerc.
Max Verstappen had a very difficult 2024 season. His immense willpower and confidence in his skills and talent never wavered and he persevered in the face of defeat, to take the win of one of the most exciting and record-breaking season in F1 history.