Verstappen's world title in Japanese GP: who preceded him?

Max Verstappen not only took victory in the Japanese Grand Prix on Sunday, but also took the world title. This makes the Dutchman the ninth driver in history to celebrate in the country. Who preceded Verstappen in the past?

In 1976, James Hunt was the first driver to manage to take the world title at the Japanese GP. There, he had to deal with Niki Lauda, who had not fully recovered from his accident during the race weekend in Germany. Due to the bad weather conditions, Lauda soon decided to give up, after which Hunt had enough to finish third to win the world championship.

Series of Brazilian celebrations in Japan

Then the Japanese had to wait 11 years before they could celebrate another world title. Between 1987 and 1991, this even happened five times in a row, with a Brazilian winning four times. Nelson Piquet was still fighting for the world title with Nigel Mansell in 1987. The latter driver crashed hard in free practice and thus saw the season end for himself, ensuring that the Brazilian took the world title.

The following years were dominated by Ayrton Senna. In 1988, the crashed Brazilian managed to win the race, clinching his first world title. In 1990 and 1991, he also clinched the championship in Japan, while Alain Prost celebrated the world title in 1989. All four cases involved the round before the final race of the season.

Damon Hill took his only world title in Japan in 1996. The Briton managed to stay ahead of Michael Schumacher in the final GP of the race year, bringing in 10 points, which was enough for him. Mika Hakkinen, who has two world titles to his name, also took both world titles in Japan. He managed to win the final race in 1998 and 1999.

Schumacher and Vettel take world titles

After the turn of the century, Schumacher was the seventh driver to prove capable of doing so. While in 1999 it was Schumacher who had to beat Hakkinen in the Japanese final round, a year later it was exactly the other way round. As a result, the German took his third career title, which he did again in 2003. The Japanese then had to deal with Sebastian Vettel celebrating the championship in 2011, after which it did not happen again for 11 years. Verstappen thus changed that this season.