Melbourne never disappoints! The Australian Grand Prix turned out to be a spectacular event to kick off the anniversary year of Formula 1. Lando Norris claimed the victory, with Max Verstappen finishing within one second of his British rival. With this first win under his belt, Norris has put an end to Verstappen’s reign in the drivers’ championship. A unique record came to an end on Sunday.
Max Verstappen is still the reigning world champion among the drivers, but with Lando Norris’ victory in Melbourne, the Dutchman no longer leads the championship. With twenty-five new points, his McLaren rival is now in the lead. The last time Verstappen was not at the top of the standings was in the run-up to the 2022 Miami Grand Prix. In total, the Dutchman was at the top for 1029 days – a remarkable record in Formula 1.
Verstappen not only led the championship for more than a thousand days, but the Dutchman also managed to claim as many as forty victories during this period. No other driver managed to secure more than four wins over the past thousand days. Next on the list is Michael Schumacher, who respectively led the championship for 896 and 630 consecutive days. He did this from 2000 to 2003 and from 2003 to 2005.
Schumacher could have led the F1 championship for over 1500 consecutive days if his winning streak had not been interrupted. McLaren started the 2003 season strong with victories from David Coulthard and Kimi Raikkonen, which led to the Finn taking the championship lead. Schumacher managed to recover with Ferrari and took over the lead halfway through the season, not to relinquish it until early 2005.
Following Schumacher, there are three more big names who held the championship lead for a long time: Ayrton Senna with 581 days (1990-1992), Alberto Ascari with 574 days (1952-1954), and Fernando Alonso with 560 days (2005-2006).
