Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was crowned the Formula One 2022 Champion after he won the Japanese Grand Prix on Sunday at the Suzuka circuit. He became champion after Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was given a five seconds penalty when he went off track at the penultimate turn of Sunday’s race.
This is Verstappen’s second F1 title in a row after he won the first at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in 2021, denying Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton his record eight World Championship.
Who is Max Verstappen?
Verstappen was born on September 30, 1997 in Haselt, Belgium where he grew up near the Dutch border. The 23-year-old became Formula 1’s youngest ever competitor at just 17 years old, when he joined Red Bull’s junior team in August 2014, declining an offer from Mercedes, ahead of the 2014 Japanese Grand Prix. Verstappen’s father, Jos Verstappen, is an ex-Formula 1 driver.
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Verstappen has been racing with a Dutch racing licence due to his duel nationality as his father is from the Netherlands and his mother Sophie Kumpen, a former kart racer, comes from Belgium.
Verstappen’s racing career started at the age of four when he started go-karting and competed in numerous junior events. He later became F1’s youngest points scorer.
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In 2015, Verstappen took on his first full-time F1 driver role with Scuderia Toro Rosso, now AlphaTauri, who are a part of the Red Bull group.
In his first race with Red Bull at the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix, Verstappen became the youngest driver ever to win a Formula One Grand Prix at the age of 18 years and 228 days.
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Between 2016 and 2020 Verstappen finished 5th, 6th, 4th, 3rd and 3rd.
Verstappen’s win over Hamilton on Sunday ended a season that saw the two contenders go wheel-to-wheel over 22 races spanning four continents and arrive in Abu Dhabi tied in the championship standings. It marked the first time the contenders were equal at the season finale since 1974.