Formula 1: Max Verstappen’s insane streak comes crashing to an end

Max Verstappen’s streak of over one year of top five finishes in Formula 1 races came to an end on the opening lap of the Belgian Grand Prix.

Coming off of the 2019 Formula 1 summer break, there was nobody on a streak quite like the one that Aston Martin Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen was on.

The 21-year-old Dutchman entered the Belgian Grand Prix at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps on a 21-race streak of top five finishes that went back to just after the Hungarian Grand Prix last July, a race in which he was forced to retire with a mechanical failure.

The next active highest top five streaks entering this 44-lap race around the 19-turn, 4.352-mile (7.004-kilometer) road course in Stavelot, Belgium were the two-race top five streaks of Scuderia Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel and McLaren’s Carlos Sainz Jr.

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But Verstappen, who had completed every lap on the schedule through the first 12 races of the 21-race 2019 season and had a chance to become the first driver to complete each lap in a season since Michael Schumacher became the first driver to ever do so in the 2002 season, was involved in an opening lap wreck that forced him to retire from the race.

Poor starts have been a problem for Verstappen so far this season, although ironically, the two races that have produced his worst starts, the Austrian Grand Prix and the German Grand Prix, are the two races that he has won so far this year.

A poor start in the Belgian Grand Prix from fifth place resulted in him losing several positions before he got to turn one, and he entered turn one on the inside of Alfa Romeo Racing’s Kimi Raikkonen, who started in sixth.

Raikkonen could not see Verstappen there, and Verstappen was already too committed to the inside to brake hard and get out of it. As a result, there was no room for Verstappen, and he made contact with Raikkonen, sending Raikkonen’s car into the air.

Raikkonen continued on, as did Verstappen, but Verstappen’s steering rack was broken. As a result, he lost control of his car and crashed seconds later, and he was officially scored in 20th (last place), ending his 21-race top five streak.

During this 21-race top five streak, Verstappen recorded three victories, 12 podium finishes and an average finish of 3.14. This streak spanned the final nine races of the 2018 season, during which time he recorded one victory, seven podium finishes and an average finish of 2.89, and the first 12 races of the 2019 season, during which time he recorded two victories, five podium finishes and an average finish of 3.33.

Max Verstappen will attempt to start another lengthy streak of great finishes in Formula 1 in this Sunday’s Italian Grand Prix, which is set to be broadcast live on ESPN2 from Autodromo Nazionale Monza in Monza, Italy beginning at 9:05 a.m. ET.