Max Verstappen left everyone in his wake at the Spanish Grand Prix on Sunday to become the youngest driver ever to win a Formula 1 race. The debutant for Red Bull Racing team had come on board just ten days back from Toro Rosso after replacing Daniil Kvyat. Verstappen had come in with much promise and proved himself from the word go. Let’s have a look at all the record the Dutchman broke:
# Max became the youngest F1 race winner at just 18 years and 228 days. He beats the previous record of Sebastian Vettel who had won the 2008 Italian Grand Prix at 21 years and 74 days – two years and 210 days older than Verstappen.
# Last year he had become the youngest driver and youngest with points won. At the Spanish GP, he added two more “youngest” to his name – race leader and podium finisher.
# Only two Dutch drivers have ever finished on an F1 podium – Max Verstappen and his dad Jos Verstappen. Jos won two podium finishes in 1994 with Benetton.
# Verstappen was making his Red Bull debut and won the race. No one has won on debut with a team since Fernando Alonso won with Ferrari in 2010.
# This is Red Bull’s first win since 2014 Belgian Grand Prix when Daniel Ricciardo climbed highest on the podium.
# With Verstappen’s win, Spanish GP has seen ten different winners in the last ten races. Felipe Massa started the trend in 2007 and was followed up by Kimi Raikkonen, Jenson Button, Mark Webber, Sebastian Vettel, Pastor Maldonado, Fernando Alonso, Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg.
# Nico Rosberg’s incredible run finally ended after seven straight race wins. The German collided with Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton in the opening lap that sent both drivers out of the race. This meant Mercedes’ winning dominance finished at 10 races.
# It was the first double retirement for the Silver Arrows since Australian GP in 2011 and first time Mercedes didn’t get any points since 2012 US Grand Prix.
# All four Red Bull backed cars finished in the points. Verstappen (first), Ricciardo (fourth), Carlos Sainz Jr (Toro Rosso, sixth) and Kvyat (Toro Rosso, tenth).
# This was the best debut for a Red Bull Racing driver. Previous to this, David Coulthard’s fourth place finish at the Austrlian GP in 2005.