Red Bull Motorsports
F1
Max Verstappen’s podium run: How his recent results compare
Max Verstappen’s podium run since June comes down to one exception. Here’s how his recent results compare with the 2026 Formula One championship standings.
Max Verstappen finished second at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku, securing his seventh podium finish of the 2026 season. The result is also his sixth podium in the last eight races, with only the Championship leader, Kimi Antonelli, having recorded more podium finishes during that period.
The start of the Dutchman’s podium finishing sequence began at Oracle Red Bull Racing’s home race in Austria. He’d finished second or third six times, with the other two ending in DNFs.
01
What Verstappen says about his second-place finish in Azerbaijan
Both Oracle Red Bull Racing drivers made the podium in Baku
© Rudy Carezzevoli/Getty Images/Red Bull Content Pool
“Yeah, we had a good race... I got close, but it was not enough,” Verstappen said in Baku’s post-race press conference after The Azerbaijan Grand Prix had seen the Dutchman again demonstrate how close he has been running to the front. This time he finished just 0.196s behind George Russell in Baku after closing on the Mercedes driver in the final stages, resulting in one of the closest winning margins in F1 this century.
He followed up by saying, “the car was feeling very good all weekend,” as he looked forward to the race in Malaysia on October 4.
He was also happy that it was the first time this season that both Oracle Red Bull Racing drivers finished on the podium, saying, “Yeah, this is what the team wants. So, maximising the result, and I think we did that today. So that’s very good. It’s working really well with Isack in the team and we just need to keep that going.”
Position
Driver
Team
Points
1
Kimi Antonelli
Mercedes
302
2
George Russell
Mercedes
236
3
Lewis Hamilton
Ferrari
199
4
Lando Norris
McLaren
186
5
Charles Leclerc
Ferrari
179
6
Max Verstappen
Red Bull
163
7
Oscar Piastri
McLaren
120
8
Isack Hadjar
Red Bull
86
9
Liam Lawson
Racing Bulls
59
10
Pierre Gasly
Alpine
41
02
The numbers behind Verstappen’s season
Verstappen's stats compare favourably with the Mercedes drivers
© Jörg Mitter/Red Bull Ring
Verstappen sits sixth in the Drivers’ Standings, 139points behind Kimi Antonelli at the top of the table. He has the most podium finishes of any non-Mercedes driver this season and is tied with George Russell on a total of seven.
Not including DNFs, Verstappen’s average finishing position is currently 3.6, compared with 3.54 for Mercedes’ Russell and 2.71 for Antonelli. Since the Austrian Grand Prix, excluding DNFs, Verstappen’s average finishing position is 2.33, compared with 3.0 for Russell and 3.88 for Antonelli.
03
The championship picture
With six podiums in his last eight races, Verstappen has continued to score across the recent run of races, while the team continues to work on developing its package.
Max Verstappen came in third at the Austrian Grand Prix
© Alex Bierens de Haan/Getty Images/Red Bull Content Pool
It’s working really well with Isack in the team and we just need to keep that going
“We profit sometimes a little bit from some misfortune of others. We are also trying to really maximise and sometimes, maybe slightly overperform. And that’s good. That’s the only thing that we can do at the moment,” Verstappen said after the Spanish GP in mid September.
“I’m definitely not having a comeback,” Verstappen told reporters in Madrid.
The Bahrain Grand Prix is next on the 2026 F1 calendar, taking place in Sepang, Malaysia, followed by eight more races before the season concludes.
About the author
