Max Verstappen will be chasing history at the Singapore Grand Prix, the chance to secure his second World drivers’ title this weekend at the Marina Bay Street Circuit.
The reigning champion, who turns 25 on Friday, can cap his birthday weekend in style if he joins an elite list of only 16 drivers who have won multiple titles.
Handy lead
The Red Bull driver has a lead of 116 points over nearest rival Charles Leclerc of Ferrari and will need a 138-point lead at the end of Sunday over the pursuing pack to leave Singapore as a double World champion.
To seal the title under the glittering lights at the place that birthed the first night race in F1 history, Verstappen needs to do something he has not done before — win the Singapore GP and hope his rivals have a poor weekend.
While the second title is an almost foregone conclusion — barring an unusual set of jeopardies over the next six races — to seal it this weekend Verstappen needs to outscore his main rival Leclerc by 22 points, by 13 over teammate Sergio Perez and six points over George Russell. Also, he needs to ensure Carlos Sainz doesn’t outscore him by 11 points.
Though his maiden title in 2021 came under controversial circumstances at the Abu Dhabi GP last year, Verstappen’s second title is set to be one without any such asterisks attached to it.
Winning streak
The 24-year-old is on a five-race winning streak, having won 11 races this year already.
He is on track to beat the record of most wins in a season — 13 by Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel.
To illustrate how dominant he has been this year, in races he has completed, he has finished outside the podium only once — the British GP — due to circumstances beyond his control, his car having collected debris which affected its performance.
After new rules were introduced at the start of the year, Verstappen took time to get used to the new generation of cars, with his teammate Perez matching him in performance.
However, Verstappen has been progressively able to extract a higher level of performance from the machine.
