Max Verstappen won last week's Japanese Grand Prix by a huge margin. In addition, he also managed to secure his second world championship. On top of that, the Dutchman also broke a special record on the Suzuka track.

Last weekend, the first GP of Japan since 2019 was scheduled. Due to the corona pandemic, the Formula 1 circus had to miss out for two years. Verstappen won the race with a lead of a whopping 27.066 seconds. The premier class has been racing at Suzuka since 1987 and no one had ever managed to make such a big gap before. The fact that only 28 of the planned 53 laps were completed makes it even more special. It is therefore a new record that the Dutchman can add to his ever-growing list of successes.

Legends

A lot of legendary drivers were ahead of Verstappen with this record. For instance, it was Gerhard Berger who won the first Formula 1 race at Suzuka in 1987 for Ferrari. He beat Ayrton Senna, then driving for Lotus-Honda, by 17.384 seconds. Only in 1995 did someone manage to win again with a bigger lead, it was Michael Schumacher. The driver then driving for Benetton crossed the finish line 19.337 seconds ahead of Mika Häkkinen. Only in 2012 was that record broken again by Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel with a lead of 20.632 over Felipe Massa's Ferrari. So after that, it was Verstappen's turn to win with the biggest lead, and thus stands at the top until it might be broken again.