Verstappen breaks Mansell record and moves past Senna and Prost with Sepang win

Sunday's result at Sepang also delivered two more milestones, and both reach back to drivers who defined earlier eras of the sport.

There was not supposed to be a Grand Prix at Sepang in 2026 as the circuit stepped in to host the Bahrain GP, which was unable to do so at Sakhir due to the Iran War and was postponed from its April date.

That brought Formula 1 back to Malaysia for the first time since 2017. The government ended the race after that season because attendance was falling. Verstappen won that last Malaysian Grand Prix, which was only the second win of his career.

Nine years later, he won at the same circuit again, starting from pole and taking a hat-trick on the way. This nine-year and three day gap translates into 3,291 days, and shatters the previous record of Nigel Mansell.

Mansell's mark also came out of unusual circumstances at Kyalami, where Mansell won the 1985 South African Grand Prix. That was the last race held in the country under Apartheid, and then-FIA president Jean-Marie Balestre declared that F1 would not race in South Africa again until Apartheid had ended.

There is a twist in the statistics. The win officially counts as a Bahrain Grand Prix victory, so it is Verstappen's third in that race after his wins in 2023 and 2024.

The second milestone is about consistency. Verstappen has now won at least one Grand Prix in eleven consecutive seasons, from 2016 to 2026. Sepang was his first win of the 2026 season, so without it the run could have ended.

That puts him third on the all-time list for consecutive winning seasons. These are the longest runs:

The win continues his streak of triumphing at least once every year since his second season in F1, back in 2016. Verstappen won nothing in his first season, 2015, with Toro Rosso.

To match Schumacher and Hamilton, Verstappen would have to win at least one race in every season up to and including 2030. After the winless months that came before Sepang this year, the streak can no longer be taken for granted. Even so, Sunday's win keeps the target alive.