Max Verstappen also broke this all-time F1 record
By Asher Fair
In addition to winning the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and the 2021 Formula 1 world championship, Max Verstappen broke an all-time record.
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen led only one lap of Sunday’s 58-lap Abu Dhabi Grand Prix around the 16-turn, 3.281-mile (5.280-kilometer) Yas Marina Circuit road course on Yas Island in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
But it was the most important lap of the 2021 Formula 1 season’s final race, one that clinched the 24-year-old Dutchman the race win and the world championship over Mercedes rival Lewis Hamilton.
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Verstappen entered the 2021 season with 10 career victories; he doubled that total throughout the year, becoming the fourth driver of all-time to win at least 10 races in a season.
He also racked up eight second place finishes in the other 12 races, meaning that his win on Sunday broke an all-time record.
Not before the 2021 season had a driver finished on the podium more than 17 times in a single season. Verstappen recorded 18, and all were top two finishes.
That record had been set initially in the 2002 season, when Michael Schumacher went a perfect 17 for 17 en route to a third straight (and fifth overall) world championship. It was first tied by Sebastian Vettel in 2011 when he went 17 for 19 to win his second straight (and overall) title.
Hamilton had tied it four times, going 17 for 19 in the 2015 season en route to winning his second straight (and third overall) title, 17 for 21 in the 2016 season en route to a runner-up finish in the standings, 17 for 21 in the 2018 season en route to his second straight (and fifth overall) title, and 17 for 21 in the 2019 season en route to his third straight (and sixth overall) title.
Hamilton himself recorded 17 podium finishes for the fifth time this past season. But unlike the first four times, he didn’t tie the record this time because of what Verstappen pulled off.
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Verstappen only failed to finish inside the top two on four occasions. He saw a win escape him in Baku due to a late tire failure, he was involved in crashes with Hamilton in both Silverstone and Monza, and he finished in ninth place in Hungary after being collected in a first-lap incident which ruined his car.