LOSAIL, Qatar (AP) — Max Verstappen has clinched the Formula One title for the third year running after placing second in the sprint race on Saturday in Qatar.
It has been a season of record dominance for Verstappen and Red Bull. Sergio Perez seemed capable of challenging his teammate early in the season, but a series of mistakes in qualifying left him well adrift before Verstappen secured the title in Qatar on Saturday.
Here is a look at key moments which shaped the season:
RED BULL'S PACE
Even before the season began, Red Bull was the clear favorite after Verstappen and Perez both set fast times in testing in Bahrain. Red Bull had the fastest car in 2022, which had seen a revolution in car design after F1 reintroduced ground-effect aerodynamics, and retained that advantage into 2023. The opening race of the season at the Sakhir circuit was a crushing 1-2 for Red Bull, with Verstappen ahead of Perez. Third-place Fernando Alonso was 38 seconds adrift of the lead for Aston Martin.
PEREZ'S HOPES
Perez won the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in April, meaning he and Verstappen had two wins each from the first four races, though Verstappen retained a narrow standings lead. “We are in the fight,” Perez told his team. Verstappen bounced back to win the next race in Miami even though he started ninth and Perez was on pole. Perez then struggled in qualifying at the following races and has not won a race since.
WINNING RUN
When Perez's performances dropped off, Verstappen stepped it up. He took victories on almost every kind of track, from the narrow, twisty streets of Monaco to the high-speed Silverstone circuit in Britain. Many wins weren't even close. Verstappen’s victory at the Italian Grand Prix in September was his 10th in a row, beating the F1 record held by Sebastian Vettel.
SINGAPORE BLIP
With 14 of the 22 races gone and Verstappen seemingly unstoppable, there was talk of Red Bull becoming the first team in F1 history to have a clean sweep of race victories over an entire season. But for reasons the team couldn't quite explain, its car and set-up didn't suit the street circuit in Singapore. Verstappen finished fifth and Perez eighth as Carlos Sainz Jr. took Ferrari’s first win since July 2022.
CROSSING THE FINISH LINE
Red Bull won the constructors' championship last month in Japan and Verstappen battled his way to second place in the sprint in Qatar to secure the drivers' title, having needed to place at least sixth to make sure. Perez was the only driver mathematically capable of catching Verstappen in the standings, but he was a bystander after being knocked out of the race in a crash with Esteban Ocon.
STILL TO COME
The Qatar Grand Prix is coming up on Sunday and, after that, five more rounds of the season remain. Verstappen has 13 wins — not including sprints — and needs three more to set a new F1 record of 16 in a single season, extending his own mark of 15 last year. In November, F1 returns to Las Vegas for the first time since 1982, and will race on a new circuit incorporating the Las Vegas Strip. The season ends with the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on Nov. 26.
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