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Max Verstappen equalled the record for race wins in a Formula One season with Sunday’s victory in Texas.
The Dutchman claimed his 13th win of the year at the United States Grand Prix to match Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel’s record.
Schumacher won 13 races out of 18 in the 2004 season and Vettel 13 of 19 in 2013, with Verstappen matching the latter thanks to Sunday’s success.
His first chance to break the record outright comes in race 20 in Mexico this weekend and with Sao Paulo and Abu Dhabi also to come, he can still get anywhere up to 16 wins this season.
It is notable that he has achieved it with far fewer pole positions than either Vettel or Schumacher, who had nine and eight respectively compared to Verstappen’s five this campaign.
As it stands, Verstappen has won 68.2 per cent of races this season, a mark that would rank equal-fourth all time with Vettel. Should he win all three remaining races to make it 16 out of 22, that 72.7 per cent figure would lift him to second.
Alberto Ascari won six out of eight in 1952 for a record 75 per cent win rate, while Schumacher’s 13 out of 18 equates to 72.2. Jim Clark had the only other 70 per cent season with seven wins out of 10 in 1963.
Verstappen had already wrapped up the title ahead of going to America, with four races to spare.
Only Schumacher in 2002 and Nigel Mansell in 1992 had sealed the deal earlier, with Verstappen joining two more Schumacher campaigns and one from Vettel to share third place on that list.
The Dutchman is on course for only the fourth three-figure winning margin in F1 – even second-place finishes behind nearest challenger Charles Leclerc in the three remaining grands prix and the Sao Paulo sprint race would secure that honour.
The different scoring systems over time obviously play a part in that, with the previous three belonging to Vettel (155 points in 2013 and 122 in 2011) and Hamilton (124 points in 2020).
A fairer comparison is the percentage lead and while Verstappen, currently with over 46 per cent more points than Leclerc, has fallen behind record pace, by that measure his is still among the most dominant seasons ever.
Mansell, and Jacques Villeneuve five years later, won with just over 48 per cent more points than their nearest challengers. Schumacher twice exceeded Verstappen’s current margin and Jackie Stewart and Juan Manuel Fangio also exceeded a 40 per cent winning margin twice each.
Verstappen is only the 11th driver to win back-to-back titles and another win next season would make him only the fifth to win three in a row.
Schumacher holds the record of five straight titles, between 2000 and 2004, while Fangio, Vettel and Lewis Hamilton all won four in a row.
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