Ranked: Max Verstappen’s top 10 F1 Grand Prix victories

10. 2022 Hungarian Grand Prix

A mistake on his first run in Q3, followed by a power unit power release issue on his second, meant Verstappen lined up in Budapest in 10th place.

Starting on the soft tyres in the cooler conditions of the day, Verstappen quickly moved up the order after a cautious start and was up to sixth by Lap 7 as he sliced past Esteban Ocon’s Alpine.

Five laps later, Verstappen pounced upon Lando Norris as the McLaren driver was wrong-footed due to being overtaken by Lewis Hamilton, with the Dutch driver up to fifth and enjoying strong pace on his softs.

Having swapped to the medium tyres for his second stint, Verstappen got past Hamilton but still looked an unlikely victor as Charles Leclerc swept past George Russell for the lead – this being at a point of the season where the Ferrari still appeared to be of comparable performance to the Red Bull.

But Red Bull brought Verstappen in at the end of Lap 39 as they employed an aggressive undercut two-stop strategy. A lap later, Leclerc was in from the lead and, to the surprise of many and joy of Red Bull, Ferrari fitted him with the unfancied hard tyre for the final 30 laps of the race.

By the end of Lap 41, Verstappen had latched onto Leclerc and overtook with a daring dive up the inside of the Ferrari – the strategic faux pas made by the Scuderia immediately apparent as Leclerc quickly fell back.

Seconds later, Verstappen spun around at the penultimate corner – his rear tyres lighting up dramatically as he recovered the situation, managing to hold onto fourth place as Leclerc overtook him once again, scarcely unable to believe his luck.

But it only took three laps for Verstappen to regroup, catch back up to his championship rival, and set Leclerc up through Turn 1 to get back past the Ferrari.

Once Sainz and Hamilton made their final stops, it handed Verstappen a tasty lead over Russell and he saw it home from there – recovering from his 10th-place grid slot to win with Red Bull and Verstappen putting in an exceptional display of strategic nous and overtaking bravery.

While helped by Ferrari’s strategic errors, Verstappen’s ability to exploit the speed of his RB18 and manage his tyres throughout meant his advantage was such that he could afford his brief little spin and still recover to win – even at a track where overtaking can be difficult.

Heading into the summer break, Verstappen’s battering of Ferrari’s confidence having won from 10th place meant he led by 80 points in the Drivers’ Championship.

9. 2018 Mexican Grand Prix

Verstappen came into race day in Mexico City “super angry” after being beaten in qualifying by Daniel Ricciardo, having had the upper hand throughout the rest of the weekend.

Ricciardo had pipped Verstappen by just 0.026 seconds, but the young charger had the bit between his teeth when the lights went out to start the Grand Prix.

On a day when Lewis Hamilton was intent on wrapping up the title, Verstappen drew all the plaudits as he nailed his start to get past Ricciardo and hold off Hamilton into Turn 1 after the immensely long drag race down the main straight of the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.

Verstappen simply disappeared from there, pulling away from start to finish to come home almost 20 seconds ahead of Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel – Ricciardo’s charge coming to an end in the closing stages as he suffered a power unit failure, while almost 12 seconds behind Verstappen.

Underlining the extent of Verstappen’s dominance, only Kimi Raikkonen and Lewis Hamilton – who wrapped up his fifth title – finished on the same lap as the Red Bull driver.

8. 2021 Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix

Verstappen arrived at Imola intent on underlining the potential of himself and the Red Bull RB16B package as a championship challenger.

Qualifying in third place behind Hamilton and Sergio Perez, Verstappen got a great getaway in the wet conditions to get alongside Hamilton into Turn 1 and ran side-by-side with the World Champion to force Hamilton onto the kerbs to back off.

Verstappen duly set about pulling away from Hamilton, showing confidence and poise in the tricky conditions as many – including Hamilton – were struggling for grip.

With the track conditions drying, Verstappen pitted for mediums on Lap 27 and remained in the lead ahead of Hamilton, who had pitted the lap before.

Hamilton was attempting to keep pace with Verstappen when he slid off into the gravel on Lap 31, damaging his front wing against the barrier at Tosa as he was forced to reverse carefully out. Lucky not to fall a lap behind, Hamilton’s race was salvaged when George Russell and Valtteri Bottas collided to bring out the red flags.

Restarting the race in ninth, Hamilton was able to claw back up into second place as Verstappen calmly brought home his car to win his first race of 2021 and send a clear message to Hamilton – 22 seconds behind – that this year wouldn’t be quite as easy as his romp towards the 2020 title.

7. 2021 French Grand Prix

Verstappen snatched pole position for Paul Ricard at a point when the 2021 championship was starting to come to life between himself and Lewis Hamilton.

But a mistake at Turn 2 allowed Hamilton through into the lead, as Verstappen had to drop behind the escape bollards after the rear of his RB16B refused to remain stable – the Dutch driver being fortunate not to lose further places to Valtteri Bottas right behind.

Hamilton opened up a three-second lead over the first stint, but it was Red Bull who blinked first as they brought Verstappen in on Lap 18. Hamilton pitted two laps later, meaning it was Verstappen who took the lead as the pair braked into Turn 1 as Hamilton re-emerged from the pitlane.

On Lap 32, with tyre degradation meaning Verstappen’s lead was just 3.5 seconds with over 20 laps to go, Red Bull took the plunge – pulling their driver in for a second stop as Hamilton continued on his merry way in the lead, cosseted by Bottas behind with a comfortable 1-2 position.

On Lap 44, Verstappen had caught Bottas and pounced upon an error from the Finn to move up into second place – a critical moment as Bottas had barely held back Verstappen’s charge.

Starting the second-last lap, Verstappen had closed the gap down to Hamilton and the Mercedes man opted not to fight for the place too hard – acquiescing the position under braking for the chicane with just a lap and a half to go.

Verstappen took the chequered flag a deserving winner, having unlocked his raw pace to make the two-stop work as Mercedes licked their wounds in defeat – might Hamilton have fought the final battle a little harder had he known just how close the championship would finish, at a time when Red Bull’s momentum was starting to increase?

6. 2019 Austrian Grand Prix

In the early stages of the Red Bull-Honda partnership, Verstappen was still awaiting his opportunity to mark the improving synergy between the two sides as F1 headed to Red Bull’s home race in the middle of 2019.

But any chance of taking an unlikely win seemed to disappear at the start as Verstappen made a poor start from second on the grid. An anti-stall issue resulted in him bogging down off the line, dropping him down to seventh by the end of the first lap – including both Mercedes getting ahead of him.

By Lap 9, Verstappen was back into fifth after overtaking Lando Norris and Kimi Raikkonen into Turn 3 – but he was already 15 seconds behind polesitter Charles Leclerc at this point.

Overtaking rivals like Sebastian Vettel and Valtteri Bottas to get back into the podium places, Verstappen had shown some nerves by complaining about his engine losing power, but he remained in contention for the win – Red Bull having put him on the hard tyre when he pitted on Lap 31, a strategic choice that brought him fully back into play in the closing stages.

Verstappen caught back up on race leader Charles Leclerc with five laps to go, with his initial overtaking attempt at Turn 3 rebuffed by the Monegasque as they accelerated down to Turn 4.

But, with three laps to go, Verstappen got his elbows out to push Leclerc wide with a more aggressive move – this time with Verstappen getting ahead and holding onto the lead to come home the victor.

It took three hours for the win to be made official as the stewards examined the contentious overtake, eventually deeming it a racing incident.

It was Verstappen’s first win of the 2019 season and Red Bull’s first victory with a Honda-powered engine, as well as his second consecutive race victory in Austria. It also ended Mercedes’ streak of eight consecutive wins to start the season.

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5. 2023 Miami Grand Prix

In a season of complete and utter dominance from Max Verstappen, it was only in the early stages of the championship that the Dutch driver appeared to have any sort of vulnerability – particularly with Sergio Perez having started the year strongly with wins in Saudi Arabia and Azerbaijan leaving him just six points behind Verstappen.

Things appeared to be falling Perez’s way in Miami, too, as Perez went on to take pole position on Saturday as Verstappen could only manage ninth on the grid having failed to set a time due to a red flag caused by Charles Leclerc’s crash.

This left Verstappen somewhat displeased, and he set out to make that clear when the lights went out on Sunday.

Starting on the hard tyre, a counter-strategy as the leaders plumped for mediums, Verstappen’s intention was to run long in the first stint. Despite the ostensible challenge of the hard tyre, Verstappen got past Lewis Hamilton, Charles Leclerc, and George Russell in quick succession and, by Lap 15, was up to second place and just a few seconds behind Perez.

Perez pitted on Lap 20, and Verstappen stayed out – allowing him to build a significant lead as he kept his tyres alive and continued to set strong lap times to build an 18.5-second lead.

It took until Lap 45 for Verstappen to pit, swapping to the medium tyre. His first stint had been so effective that he re-emerged on track in second place, meaning his only challenge was now to catch and pass Perez – the Mexican being on aging hard tyres, Verstappen on fresh mediums.

Two laps later, Verstappen was crawling all over the back of Perez, and he lined up his attack into Turn 1 at the start of Lap 48 to take the lead away. He went on to win by 5.3 seconds, including setting the fastest lap on the penultimate lap to gain an extra point.

It had been a thrilling display of tyre management and speed, with Verstappen’s calm and methodical approach to working forward from ninth place while keeping his tyres in fine fettle rewarding him in spades towards the end.

It had been a clear message to Perez, with Verstappen making the point by highlighting the number 1 on his car after climbing out of his RB19.

If he’d wanted to psychologically destroy Perez, it was particularly effective. Verstappen won a further 16 races throughout 2023, Perez didn’t even win a single one.

4. 2016 Spanish Grand Prix

Granted, Verstappen needed a healthy chunk of luck for this one as the two fastest cars on the grid collided on the first lap to take each other out.

Mercedes were embroiled in the tension-filled days of Nico Rosberg vs. Lewis Hamilton in their third year of F1 dominance, and the collision between the pair opened up the door at the Circuit de Catalunya-Barcelona for a surprise winner.

But few would have guessed it would be Red Bull Racing debutant Max Verstappen who would come out on top, having been confirmed as replacing Daniil Kvyat ahead of the event.

Verstappen had qualified in fourth place, immediately getting involved in the Red Bull vs. Ferrari squabble that was going on behind Mercedes. Red Bull opted for split strategies, with Daniel Ricciardo on a three-stop, and Verstappen on a two. Ferrari did the same, putting Sebastian Vettel on a three-stop, and Kimi Raikkonen on a two-stop.

The two-stop strategy proved superior, with the race turning into a head-to-head between Verstappen and Raikkonen as strategy had given the young Red Bull driver track position over the veteran World Champion.

Raikkonen, at 36 years old, was double Verstappen’s age and, given how he was breathing down the neck of Verstappen, appeared to have the quicker package under him – surely the weight of his experience and talent, combined with that speed, would be enough to topple this young whippersnapper getting his first chance of a win?

But Verstappen’s cool-headedness to make no mistakes meant Raikkonen never got a proper sniff at taking the lead away – the Dutch driver simply soaked up the pressure, and he crossed the line 0.6 seconds clear of Raikkonen to take his maiden win and underline his arrival at the forefront of F1.

He became the sport’s youngest-ever winner at 18 years and 228 days, a record that is currently unlikely to be beaten due to the superlicence rules which were tweaked due to Verstappen’s arrival into the sport.

3. 2021 United States Grand Prix

Coming near the culmination of the increasingly hostile 2021 season, the United States Grand Prix turned into a tense slugfest between Verstappen and title rival Lewis Hamilton with nothing to separate the duo in terms of pace.

Verstappen had taken pole position but Hamilton, who had started alongside in second, got the better launch to pass Verstappen into the first corner.

This left Verstappen chasing the race from that point, and it was strategy that brought the Dutch driver back into contention.

Employing the undercut, Verstappen dived into the pits on Lap 11 for what appeared to be an early stop as he switched from the medium to the hard tyre. Having effectively taken back the lead from Hamilton had Mercedes brought him in immediately, Mercedes instead chose to stay out to create a tyre offset – setting up the chessboard for a nail-biting finish.

Once Hamilton did pit, it gave Verstappen the lead and the same scenario played out during the second round of stops – Verstappen pitted first on Lap 29, having had his six-second lead shrunk to 2.6 seconds, to take on the hard tyre for the final stint.

It was nine laps later before Mercedes brought Hamilton in to take on his final set of hard tyres, meaning he had 18 laps to catch and pass Verstappen on his considerably fresher tyres.

With seven laps to go, Hamilton was within touching distance of his championship rival, and was tantalisingly close to the DRS range with two laps to go – a brief delay while stuck behind Haas’ Mick Schumacher turning into a little bonus as Verstappen got DRS to start the final lap.

While Hamilton was within a second of Verstappen all through the final lap, he never quite managed to launch an attack – Verstappen having just about managed to massage his aged tyres home and turn what had been a very aggressive tyre strategy into a stellar victory.

It opened Verstappen’s lead up from six to 12 points with five races to go, and demonstrated to Hamilton that the Dutch driver was not one to crack under pressure as he closed in on his first world title.

In July of 2024, Verstappen revealed that he’d also been struggling with his vision at this point of the season – an aftermath from his huge impact against the Silverstone barriers earlier in the summer.

“In this race, I wasn’t just battling against Lewis, but also against blurry images,” Verstappen revealed.

“It was like driving a speedboat at 300 km/h! I’ve never told you this before, but for a few laps, it was so bad that I seriously considered turning the car off. The only thing that helped was concentrating on my breathing while Lewis was breathing down my neck.”

2. 2019 Brazilian Grand Prix

Securing pole position for the race at Interlagos, Verstappen was kept under pressure by Lewis Hamilton at the start as the Mercedes man set about trying to wrest the lead away from the Dutch driver after getting past Sebastian Vettel.

Hamilton attempted the undercut on Lap 21, diving in to keep the pressure up on Verstappen as Red Bull responded immediately.

Verstappen’s chances of retaining the lead were stymied as he was blocked by Williams’ Robert Kubica exiting the pitlane, as he was forced to stamp on the brakes and go slower than he would have liked.

Negotiating his way back past Charles Leclerc, Verstappen was not to be held back – he dived up the inside of a surprised Hamilton to take back the lead, at a point in time when Hamilton’s dominance of F1 hadn’t yet ended.

But the race had a further sting. Valtteri Bottas’ engine let go, bringing out the Safety Car with 16 laps remaining. While Mercedes opted to leave Hamilton out on track, Red Bull brought Verstappen in from the lead – dropping him down to second behind Hamilton.

But, on the restart, Verstappen promptly went around the outside of Hamilton at Turn 1 to force the World Champion to back off into Turn 2 – a move he would attempt again, with lesser success, in 2022.

Verstappen went on to win, while a Red Bull 1-2 went begging as Hamilton collided with Alex Albon with just over a lap to go to send the British-Thai driver spinning down the order and earning Hamilton a time penalty.

It had been a masterclass display from Verstappen, with his decisive overtakes catching Hamilton completely by surprise as he responded with authority to Mercedes’ undercut attempts.

1. 2022 Belgian Grand Prix

With Red Bull’s authority on the 2022 championship established by the time F1 rolled up to Spa-Francorchamps at the end of August, a good chance of someone breaking that stranglehold was presented in Belgium as Red Bull took a grid penalty due to introducing new engine components on Verstappen’s car.

Lining up in 14th place on the grid, Verstappen was simply unstoppable at what is one of his favourite tracks as he sliced his way forward.

By Lap 8, Verstappen was already into the top four as he made rapid progress with the RB18’s straight-line speed, as well as capitalising on issues for Lewis Hamilton (who collided with Fernando Alonso) and Charles Leclerc (who pitted early due to a tear-off strip in his brake duct).

By Lap 12, Verstappen was in the lead after overtaking Sergio Perez while Carlos Sainz pitted, slipping back down to second when he pitted himself to swap to the medium tyre.

On Lap 18, Verstappen caught back up on Sainz and overtook the Spaniard to take the lead properly – and that was the last time anyone saw him for the rest of the afternoon as he opened up an almost 20-second lead by the chequered flag.

Verstappen had controlled the race with ease in what had been a remarkable display of dominance.

Do you agree with our list? What other races would you include in Max Verstappen’s top 10 F1 Grand Prix wins?