The battle for the championship is entering the crucial final stages with Max Verstappen currently 19 points ahead of Lewis Hamilton with four races to go.
Throughout the year, the pendulum has swung back and forth with the reigning world champion taking an early lead by winning three of the first four races.
Verstappen would take his second victory of the year in Monaco and was on course to go back-to-back in Azerbaijan until a puncture caused his first retirement. However, a mistake by Hamilton at the restart meant he couldn’t capitalise in Baku as neither managed to score.
Entering the summer, Red Bull began to dominate with Verstappen claiming three straight wins to open up a 32-point lead after the Austrian GP.
Then came drama at Silverstone as the two drivers touched on Lap 1 with Max sent crashing into the barrier at high speed. Lewis would be penalised but still recovered to win his home race and close the gap to 8 points.
In Hungary, Verstappen would only finish 9th after another Lap 1 incident, this time with the Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas, while P2 for Hamilton in Budapest put him on top in the standings heading into the summer break.
Consecutive wins at Spa (albeit only half points due to rain) and Zandvoort would put the Dutchman back ahead before the 2nd big clash between the pair at Monza, where a collision took both drivers out of the race.
Though Hamilton led after victory in Russia, Verstappen has finished ahead in the past three races, including wins in Austin and Mexico, to build up his current 19-point advantage heading to Sao Paulo.
