After Method 1’s gruelling marathon of a 24-round, 30-race season, the earliest occasions inevitably fade most rapidly from reminiscence. However one element instantly recollects how a lot the primary races of 2024 felt like a continuation of the earlier season: Max Verstappen’s victory within the Chinese language Grand Prix was his eleventh from the earlier 12 rounds.
He was heading in the right direction to win the following one, too, till an premature Security Automobile handed victory to the driving force who emerged because the strongest menace to Verstappen’s fourth consecutive championship title: Lando Norris. But even from the Miami Grand Prix, when Crimson Bull’s dominance first got here below severe menace, Verstappen nonetheless received extra races than every other driver.
However with the competitors respiratory down his neck for a lot of the season, it wasn’t simply these wins which secured him the title, however the days he needed to be content material with second or decrease. Verstappen was usually simply as spectacular on these events as when he emerged from a refreshingly aggressive area to grab victory.
He did it in Canada, the place he prevailed in a straight struggle with Norris and George Russell in combined circumstances. And Verstappen triumphed once more at Catalunya in one other struggle with the identical pair.
At that time, few suspected the driving force who received seven of the opening 10 rounds wouldn’t stand on the highest step of the rostrum at any of the following 10. Certainly, Verstappen solely took 4 podium finishes throughout that spell.
Max Verstappen
| Greatest | Worst | |
|---|---|---|
| GP begin | 1 (x8) | 17 |
| GP end | 1 (x9) | 6 (x4) |
| Factors | 437 | |
Nonetheless he appropriately recognized Norris as his prime menace within the championship and targeted his energies on thwarting his rival’s efforts. Generally he did this by means of superior ability and technique, as at Silverstone and Spa. Generally he needed to minimise his losses, as at Zandvoort and Singapore, when the McLaren was untouchable, at the very least in Norris’s fingers.
Different occasions Verstappen pushed the principles to the restrict as he strived to delay or hinder his rival. At occasions he appeared fairly ready to just accept the inevitable penalty which adopted his actions, as once they collided in Austria, or in Mexico the place Verstappen threw his automotive down the within of Norris in a zero-percentage transfer at flip seven.
Verstappen stopped the rot in his factors lead at Interlagos, the place luck was on his aspect within the grand prix – although it wasn’t in qualifying – and he drove flawlessly in dire circumstances. When he secured his fourth title with a conservative drive in Las Vegas nobody might doubt it was totally merited, and arguably his finest up to now, notably because it got here with out the acrimony of 2021’s tainted finale.
With the strain off, Verstappen took a remaining win in Qatar, sweeping Russell apart in the beginning then recognizing Norris’s yellow flag error en path to his ninth victory. Following that, it was unusual to see him finish the yr in a unnecessary conflict with Oscar Piastri in Abu Dhabi. Till then, Verstappen had demonstrated utter mastery of the competitors.
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