Max Verstappen Makes History with Imola Grand Slam

Max Verstappen took the second Grand Slam of his career and the second of the 2022 Formula One season at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix at the end of April. Unlike his other Grand Slam, Verstappen picked up extra points in Italy when winning the Imola Sprint Race.

Max Verstappen is the reigning Formula One Drivers’ Champion, competing under the Dutch Flag with Oracle Red Bull Racing. Coming into Formula 1 in 2015 for the Australian Grand Prix with Toro Rosso when he was just 17 years and 166 days old, Verstappen was the youngest ever driver to compete in the Formula One World Championship. A year later in 2016, Verstappen made history once again by winning the Spanish Grand Prix on his debut with Red Bull Racing, making him the youngest and first Dutch driver to win an F1 Grand Prix race at 18 years old.

After a tough start to the 2022 season, Bahrain and Australia saw Verstappen retire after engine failures, coming away from both races with 0 points. At the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, Verstappen and Red Bull Racing proved themselves with a perfect weekend for the World Champion as he bagged maximum points. He has started to close the gap on Scuderia Ferrari driver and current championship leader Charles Leclerc after taking both the Sprint Race and Grand Prix win, with an error from Leclerc causing him to spin and cross the chequered flag in sixth position in Imola.

After the Grand Prix weekend in Italy, Verstappen scored a Grand Slam taking pole position, driver of the day, fastest lap, the Sprint Race win, and the Grand Prix win. He led all 63-laps of the circuit during Sunday’s race and took 35 points away with him.

The 2021 season saw Verstappen become the first Dutch driver to win the World Championship when he took the lead in the final lap at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. After the dramatic season finale at the Yas Marina circuit, Verstappen came away with 18 podiums which surpasses Michael Schumacher’s record of ending a season with 17 podiums back in 2002.

Verstappen is now used to breaking Formula 1 records after he became the youngest ever Formula 1 race leader at 18 years and 229 days old at the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix when he took P1 on lap 30. The 2016 Spanish Grand Prix also witnessed Verstappen make history by becoming the youngest driver to stand on an F1 podium.

When he was 17 years and 3 days old at the 2014 Japanese Grand Prix he became the youngest driver to drive on a race weekend and at the 2015 Australian Grand Prix he took the record of becoming the youngest driver to start an F1 race at 17 years and 166 days old.

Again in 2015 at the Malaysia Grand Prix Verstappen became the youngest F1 driver to score a point at 17 years and 180 days old and a year later at the 2016 Brazilian Grand Prix when he was 19 years and 44 days old by becoming the record holder for being the youngest driver to set the fastest lap.

2021 was Verstappen’s strongest season after taking first and second position in all but one race he finished. Verstappen’s only race finish without a podium was at the 2021 Hungarian Grand Prix when he got caught up in an incident caused by Valtteri Bottas breaking late in the rain. The 24-year-old had 3 DNFs in 2021: Azerbaijan saw him retire after a tyre blowout whilst his DNFs in Britain and Italy came from collisions with Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton.

Ahead of the 2022 Miami Grand Prix, the Dutch champion has achieved 22 race victories, 62 podiums, 14 pole positions and 1616.5 career points. He no doubt will continue to make history in his Formula One career after recently signing a five-year contract extension for 2023-2028 with Red Bull Racing.